How to kill a Dragon
by Teemuu
Summary: A dragon plagues the borderlands of Westholding. Most see this as a disaster, but Gerald the bard sees this as his ticket to fame and fortune. My 2016 nano project.
1. Chapter 1

"Through the heart," said Gerald as he first pantomimed an archer drawing a bow and taking aim, and then halfway through his performance decided to switch it to a crossbow shot to be more dramatic. "Doesn't matter how big or tough you are, but a shot through the heart will bring down any beast, be it draconic or of the more mundane variety."

"What about its scales?"

"Aren't its rib cage bones supposed to be as strong as stone?"

"Don't they use magic to deflect missiles?"

"I heard Prince Aaron favors the sword. Is a sword long enough to pierce through to its heart? "

Gerald shook his head smugly at the crowd. "I'm sure the Prince will use a spear, or a lance or something of that sort. Besides striking it in the heart, one also has to prey on the dragon's other weakness…its boundless arrogance."

Most of the crowd murmured in hush tones, but a short cloaked woman that he did not recognize near the back snorted in contempt at that statement. Gerald rolled his eyes visibly at the woman as he ignored her. He was an artist, someone that puts his reputation and career on the line with each performance, a net contributor to enlighten these simple village folk, while she was simply a critic, someone that risked nothing and only clawed at the feet of giants.

"As I was saying, often a dragon's downfall is its pride. While the beast could simply fly in the air and drop rocks and boulders on its attackers or more dramatically rain fire or lightning, or whatever fell breath it possesses on our heroic Prince, these prideful monsters would prefer to battle it out with tooth and claw. Man to lizard. They not only want to test themselves, but to show to all the world their strength and power. Why defeat a hero when you can humiliate him? Why defeat his challengers today, when he can frighten the masses for a year?"

One of the smaller children listening to his story started to shake. It began with a quivering of his lips, but then blossomed to all out bawling. Gerald sensed that he might have gone too far with that last little flourish.

"The odds favor the beast immensely, but that's not to say a dragon is invincible. With a bit of planning and preparation, even the most fearsome beast can be laid low. How else do you explain that most Black dragons have been hunted to near extinction in the Trolless fens and the Xaber Swamps, and the last major sighting of a red dragon was a hundred years ago. Magda the terrible hag queen of the north was slain by Sir Jose of the Green Hound, atop a flying castle if you can believe it. I've even heard stories of professional dragon hunters in the east, but fortunately for us we have our Prince to protect us, not some high and snooty over paid foreigners."

The crowd clapped and cheered. Gerald was hoping the woman that interrupted him earlier would see how 'right' he was, and how 'wrong' she was. Sadly, she had left, probably fleeing in shame before the jeers of the masses would silence her.

"Has Prince Arron slain many dragons?"

"Is he going to slay it alone or will he bring his Silver Guard with him."

"How do you become a Silver Guard?"

"Are there five members of the Silver Guard, or are there spares? Reserves?"

"Is Prince Aaron going to marry Lady Tessa of the Silver Guard or does she have to be a Princess?"

Gerald ignored the questions, and simply held out his wide brimmed hat. Normally he would indulge his audience, sharing his knowledge or making it up as he went. He loved to engage the crowd to get a stronger artistic rapport with them, but he saw activity at the inn, and decided now was the right time. After collecting a few meager coppers, he tipped his head at one of the more generous old ladies, and slipped away in a pink puff of smoke.

* * *

Gerald was a bard, and he was going places, or at least that was his plan. While most consider a dragon on the borderlands a bad thing, Gerald saw opportunity. Though Gerald was the furthest thing from an actual Dragon Slayer, he knew that legitimate monster slayers would be drawn to this creature's appearance. It was his plan to latch onto such a group, aid them with his bardic abilities, and then 'cash in' like a proper hero with a share of the dragon's immeasurable wealth.

But more important to him than gold or jewels would be to bear witness to the deed. In the past he had watched the town guard drive away an ogre and some local hunters put down a dire wolf. Both events he spun into grand tales, and received many a coin whenever he recounted those deeds. After a few retellings he even added a few embellishments like pixies riding the wolf, and two heads on the ogre to spicen things up and recalled fondly being invited to the mayor's dance and even a few noble and merchant manors just to perform his ballad. If he had the chance to witness an actual dragon being slain, he would be set up for life, and given that the dragon slayers in question weren't some grubby mercenary types or outlaw adventurers, but the Prince of Westholding himself, he could practically envision the invitations to the big city and to court to ply his trade, and to woo the ladies.

He had already worked it out. He would introduce himself to the Prince, regale him of his tales of pixie riding wolves and two headed ogres, and then off he would go to watch the Prince and his men battle the dragon. It might take a day or two, but Gerald was prepared for that. He had packed a light lunch and also received a hefty wedge of cheese for his retelling of the 'Orange Hero' this morning, but regardless of how long it would take he would get his tale.

As Gerald hurried to the inn to meet his destiny, his path was barred by a mob of roughly fifty dirty commoners that wanted to catch a glimpse of the Prince.

"Excuse me, excuse me," he pleaded as he attempted to push his way past.

"Get in line," said Inga. The squat old woman then elbowed him back. "I want to see the handsome Prince."

Gerald couldn't believe it, his fame and fortune were slipping away from him as his path was being barred by some old hag. He attempted to shove her out of the way, but his delicate arms were no match for the old woman's strength. Inga simply elbowed him much forcefully this time, and sent him crashing into the muddy road.

Gerald scrambled to get up, and was nearly pushed to the ground again as the mob shifted.

"Make way! Make way for Prince Aaron," shouted a strong feminine voice. While Gerald couldn't see, he was sure that was Lady Tess, the famed leader of the Silver Guard that had been linked romantically to the Prince in so many stories. It was tragic really. Despite her station she couldn't actually marry the Prince, since she was common born. It did make for a racy tale and Gerald considered adapting his own version of it. He needed a Princess somewhere to make it a neat love triangle, and wondered if he could simply invent one to fit his story. Or better yet, perhaps a twist to the story. Maybe Lady Tess was attracted to some rugged stranger…a bard maybe?...and the Prince was the one that was trying to win her affection.

As Gerald considered his tale, he realized that the crowd and presumably the Prince was getting ahead of him. He scrambled to his feet and saw the large backside of the old lady. His way was barred once again.

But…Gerald was clever. From the direction the crowd was shuffling, he guessed they were making their way to the watch tower. That meant that if he was fleet of foot, he could race his way around the inn and past Edd's Sundries to wait for them there.

While Gerald was a bard, a profession famed for being skilled at many different talents, however he was honest with himself and his abilities. He couldn't dance, act, or sing, but he could tell a story though not in the way he wanted. That was still a work in progress for him. Beyond a little prestidigitation tricks, he wasn't that good with magic. Some smoke and lights were the extent of that discipline. Melee combat was also a no-no. He had a rapier he bought from a drunken man from North Darokin, but it was mostly for show. Often the sight of it would scare would be thieves. He drew it only once, and that was to chase off a terrier sized toad by the river, but his drawing technique was….flawed….and he ended up stabbing his foot instead. Stealth was also off the table for Gerald. He was a self-admitted show boat, and the thought of rendering oneself unseen was abhorrent to him. He guessed he could stay quiet if he really needed to, but five minutes at best was where he judged his own limit. Given all his professional setbacks, there was one thing that he was good at, and that was being fleet of foot. A most important skill for a bard to have considering everything he did was subpar.

Given his unprecedented sprinter's ability, Gerald easily ran around the Greenmaiden Tavern, dashed past the general store, and skipped the last lengths towards the tower before the stocky old woman could bar his path again. Breathing heavily, Gerald combed back his hair with his fingers, attempting to present a charming image to the Prince before he was recruited.

"Out of the way! Make way for the Prince!" barked a tall woman in silver armor, leading a half dozen similarly attired knights followed by a mob of adoring villagers.

Despite her stern face, Gerald was stunned by her beauty. Her wavy creamy brown hair, steely blue eyes, and dazzling white teeth. Surely this was the famous Lady Tess, paladin of Nirrodin and constant companion to Prince Arron. Instead of falling back as ordered, he mustered the courage and stood in the maiden's path.

"Greetings…I am Gerald of the honeyed voice, or as the locals call me Gerald the Magnificent. I am here to offer my services to our liege…."

Gerald wasn't sure what happened next, but he think it either involved Lady Tess slamming her shield into his chest, or her boot connecting to her stomach. Both parts hurt equally, so he guessed it might have been both.

Gerald gasped to recover his breath and scrambled out of the mud again, but found himself surrounded by adoring villagers. He attempted to push them out of the way, throwing elbows like that hag did earlier, but was once again tossed back into the mud by previously mentioned old woman.

"No….Prince! My Prince! I offer my services to you!" he cried, as he watched the Silver guard mount up. Four of them had their horses readied by Ed the stableboy, while Lady Tess, and a delicate looking youth with short blond hair and a simple golden circlet, simply summoned glowing white horses to them from out of thin air. The crowd gasped in wonder before applauding and cheering the Silver Guard and their Prince as they rode out into the forest. To face the marauding dragon….without him.

Gerald wiped the grime off his face and wide brimmed hat, as he picked himself out of the mud for a third time. His chance for treasure and eternal fame had spurned his offer, but he wasn't deterred. While he considered that they might reject his immeasurable skills, he was a local and knew the land, so he that going for him. At the very least, he could simply follow the dragonslayers as they went about their business, witness their victory and then write a grand ballad about it.

They couldn't stop him from following them into the forest. They didn't own the forest.

Well technically it was the King's forest and the Prince did own it, but he didn't make a decree forbidding anyone to follow. It was true that most avoided the forest due to the dragon, and there was a chance he might get in the way if a fight turned sour and there was jets of flame tossed about, but this wasn't about personal safety. It was about art!

"Well that didn't go well," said a voice followed by a familiar snort to his side.

Before Gerald turned, he already recognized her. It was the cloaked woman from his earlier performance. She was wearing a simple grey traveller's cloak, and had a short dark hair and a youthful circular face. With her round saucer eyes, she seemed more of a girl than a woman, but there was an odd commanding self-assured presence about her.

"You are an amusing fool, but you clearly know this area."

Gerald had no time for her taunts. The Prince and his guard were on horseback, while he was on foot. There was no time to waste if he was going to catch them and complete his tale. He simply shook off as mud as he can from himself and pressed onwards to the forest.

"Begone harpy! I don't have time for you!"

"I won't take up too much of your time. I have a gold for you, if you tell me about this dragon that plagues your town," she said as she held out a shiny Grommish Crown.

Gerald stopped and stared at the golden coin. That was about a month's worth of busking and performing for his meals.

"Well, maybe I have a little time for you."


	2. Chapter 2

Gerald waved his new patron towards the Greenmaiden Tavern and Inn.

"This might take a while. We should sit down for this," he lied. He actually didn't have much to tell, but he did want dinner and a drink in case the coin proved fake. If that was the case, he could at least blame it on this small woman and slip out in the confusion.

The woman seemed agreeable to his plan and simply nodded and followed. It was a short walk to the inn, but Inga's sister Sanngror crossed her arms and blocked his path as he tried to enter the premise. Before she could raise a fuss, probably over his unpaid tab or something trivial like that, Gerald simply spun his gold coin on his finger. He balanced the spinning for a few seconds before flipping it the squat woman.

"I'll want change for that," he said as he graciously pull out a chair for his guest. "There you go , miss..umm…"

"You may call me Mina," said the woman as she placed her heavy cloak on the back of the chair and sat demurely down.

Besides being short and having a round youthful face, Mina wore a dark red embroidered surcoat, something a minor noble or a rich merchant might wear. He also noticed a dagger at her belt, while he could only see its scabbard, he noted it was not a fancy courtesan's knife, but a fairly worn and heavy knight's dagger with the head of a dog or perhaps a wolf on its pommel.

"Nice knife you have there," commented Gerald as he ordered an ale and a bread bowl of stew.

"It belonged to my mother," replied Mina. "She was a knight of the Hound."

Gerald didn't know much about the Order of the Hound. He did know they weren't one of the big orders, Crab, Boar, Mammoth, Griffin, Snow Lion, Narwhal, and Mammoth, and they also had a keep down south in the Western Freeholds. They might have been involved when Magda the dragon was slain a century ago, but Gerald wasn't going to get ahead of himself. If such was a case Mina would probably let him know.

"So what do you want to know about this dragon," asked Gerald as he sipped on his ale, a brackish tasting brew, but about the best you could get in the borderlands this time of year.

"I'm not interested in the myths and legends of this creature," replied Mina coolly. "I'm more interested in hard facts. Like when and where was it first spotted. What or whom has it attacked? Has it made any demands or requests for tribute? Any physical descriptions."

Gerald nodded and smiled. "You could have asked Sanngror for that, but I'm you came to me. I'm pretty much the most reliable source of information around these parts."

Mina smirked at that comment but waved him to continue.

"The dragon was first spotted at a logging camp three weeks ago. The lumberjacks said it flew about twice overhead before it rained fire onto the camp. As you can imagine, after its first fiery assault the hapless woodsmen fled for their lives. Shortly afterwards the dragon attacked again, but this time at a small mining operation twenty miles from town. Apparently it destroyed the foreman's cabin before chasing the miners away. It was seen snaking its way into its mines and it's common belief that the dragon resides inside it. "

"There were survivors I assume?"

"Aye. Though a few woodsmen and miners died, a fair number of them made it back to town to tell us their tale. Since then the dragon has been sort of holed up in the mines, but that's to be expected. Dragons are very slothful and lazy beasts, they are similar to sabretooth tigers in the way that that they mostly sleep except when they awaken to gorge themselves."

Mina frowned. "I do not need you commentary. I just need your facts. Please describe the dragon itself. What colour was it? Did it have wings? or point me in the direction of a survivor."

Gerald smiled, there was no way he'll let someone else finish his story. While he was already paid, he knew that rich patrons often tipped. Generously, though not fairly. Often the last person serving them would get the golden gratuity and not the person that deserved it, namely himself.

"The monster was a good twenty five, perhaps thirty feet long from snout to tail. It certainly did have wings. It wasn't a drake or a linnorm, but a real dragon. four great clawed feet, with bat like wings sprouting from its shoulder. It was golden red in colouration, with a tuff of black hair on its chin."

Actually, Gerald wasn't sure about the hair, but added it for good measure to impress Mina.

"You said golden red. Which was it? Gold or red?"

"Err… Predominantly red. I suppose the sun glinting off its scales could have given it a more shiny look."

"It attacked during the day?"

"Yes." Again Gerald had no clue, but Mina didn't have to know.

Mina considered his description, and then closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. An odd hissing and crackling noise emanated from her satchel, like the sound of burning pine cones, but she ignored it. Gerald wasn't sure what it was, but didn't want to seem concerned so he ignored it as well.

"What type of mine was it? Precious metals, gems?" asked Mina after considering Gerald's previous statements.

"No, just coal. The town of Daggerhall doesn't export much, but we do a brisk business in the coal trade."

"And the trees? Were they rare woods or anything valuable like that?"

Gerald shook his head, not understanding the line of questions. "No, mainly softwoods. Pines."

Again the hissing came from Mina's satchel, but instead of ignoring it she oddly whispered back to it in a tongue that Gerald didn't recognize. Gerald wasn't sure what was happening but took the opportunity to order a slice of pie from old lady Sanngror and of course another ale. He also ordered an ale for Mina. He wasn't sure if she wanted it or not, but it would make for a convenient excuse to stick her for the entire bill later on if the opportunity arisen.

After several minutes of discussion with her satchel, Mina returned her attention to Gerald. She didn't seemed faze by the ale and took a big quaff of it before resuming her questioning.

"Did the dragon attack your neighbors to the north? What has the locals done about this dragon, besides summoning the Prince? Have there been any sightings of….adventurers?"

Gerald shrugged. "We don't really deal with Arl Dool. The house of the Turkey Vulture pretty much leaves us alone, and we do the same. Which is fine by me. Rumor has it that he's pretty much keeps his barony to himself. He doesn't even trade with the Grommers. Just lives like a hermit with his serfs and does who knows what."

"Arl Dool? As in Alak Dool? The wizard lord?"

"Wizard Lord? I'm not sure about that, but like I said he's pretty far north of here. At least a hundred miles. That's ten days on foot, if you're lucky. There's no roads leading there. Speaking of wizards, our first reaction was to hire a wizard, but the king kinda burned the bridges to the local finger waggler, so we weren't going to get help from that front. And as for what measures we've taken, we've mainly scattered the militia. So they're in several strong points in the village. In case the dragon decides on a pre-emptive strike he won't incinerate everyone at once. Also we've sent word to the Holy Church of Koryis. It's said they have a dragon sword or something of the like, and we've asked for its use. Luckily for us, the Prince has arrived and we prolly don't need any of that rubbish. Prince Aaron has made quite a reputation for himself vanquishing monsters. He bested a bear with the head of an owl last year, and even slew a flying deer creature that casted no shadows earlier this spring. A dragon should be no problem for him."

"Interesting," mused Mina who drowned the rest of her mug. Gerald was concerned that such a small woman was drinking a bit too fast. While the local brew wasn't exactly of craft quality , it was pretty strong. Oddly it had little effect on the woman with the strange satchel. "When the dragon attacked, did anyone report …a strange feeling taken over them? Like they were consumed by fear?"

"Dragon aura," said Gerald with a smug proud look. It was a term he heard once, but instantly recognized it from Mina's line of questioning. Again he wasn't sure if they were possessed by a magical fear. If a giant thirty foot scaled fire breathing monster attacked him, he would have run regardless if he was enchanted or not. Still, he wanted to seem to know what he was talking about and nodded his head knowingly like some wizened sage.

Mina shrank into her chair and ordered another ale from Sanngror, but this time nursed her drink as she fell deep in thought.

Gerald finished his pie and studied the small woman. Why all the questions? Was she a sage of some sort? That would make sense. She heard of a dragon, and came to Daggerhall to perhaps study it. She would have little chance though, since the beast would probably be slain soon by Prince Aaron. A day or two at best. She would have to resign herself to study the corpse, which was what he would have to do if he didn't hurry up to catch them. Gerald didn't like to travel a night, but with a full belly and a couple of ales in him, it didn't seem like a bad idea.

"If you have no more questions my dear," declared Gerald as he rose and did his best impression of a courtly bow. "I am off to catch up with the Prince and watch him slay the monster."

Mina's eyes grew wide. "You're going to pursue the Prince? He didn't seem to require your service earlier."

Gerald shrugged. "I will not fault him for his ignorance. Besides, I am a bard and this is my calling. How can I sing of great deeds if I don't bear witness to them? Unless he orders my directly, I'll just stay out of his highness' way, though I suspect that he would need my services before the day is done." Actually Gerald hoped he didn't see him at all, and more importantly leave some of the dragon's horde behind him so he can get some loot.

"Do you know this area well?"

"Of course, I grew up in this area. I know it like the back of my hand."

"Pfft, Gerald's sticks to the farms and town," snorted Inga who had made her way back to her sister's inn and had now rudely butted into his conversation. "He's a townie through and through with delusions of grandeur. All he does is tell his stories about the two headed wolf and the pixie headed ogre."

"That's Pixie riding wolf, and two headed ogre," corrected Gerald as he made a threatening fist to the old woman. Inga slapped her cheeks together in mock fear and laughed as she made her way to the bar. "Ignore her Lady Mina. Inga is just jealous that she awaits the world's events and tries to put down those that want to do something about it."

Mina nodded and looked Gerald up and down. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know your way to the mines do you? I would like to examine them to get further information about the dragon plaguing your town."

Gerald gulped uneasily. Following the Prince safely from a distance in the woods was one thing, but going to the dragon's lair with a young suicidal girl?

"Err…my schedule is kind of….well….not…."

"I won't ask you to fight, and there's a hundred gold in it for you?" To make her point Mina reached into her satchel and drew out a small sack that clinked heavily on the table. She opened its draw strings and showed Gerald the gold.

Gerald was a simple bard in a simple town. In Daggerhall for a copper you could get a meal. For a silver, a new change of clothes, and for a gold one could live for a month quite comfortably. For fifteen gold one could even get a horse, though Gerald admitted his equestrian skills were subpar at best. For fifty gold one could buy a nice house along the river and even have a nice plot of land adjoining.

Where fear trumped common sense, greed easily trumped fear.

"Whenever you wish to proceed to the mines, I am at your service," said Gerald with a wide grin on his face.


	3. Chapter 3

"Let's get a move on," said Gerald as he left the inn with Mina in tow. "The mine is about a four hour hike, we might make it by nightfall if we leave now."

"Oh, is that all? Let me help with that then," said Mina. She then waved her hands and two horses appeared, complete with brit and saddle.

Villagers gasped as they crowded around the horses in awe. A few of the small children even attempted to touch them but withdrew their hands quickly and giggled at their failed attempts.

Mina looked surprised. "Why are they all looking at these conjured horses as if I had summoned a demon? It's but a low level spell. "

Gerald was shocked too, he suspected there was more to Mina than a foolish noblewoman but never guessed she was sorceress. "These bumpkins really don't see much magic here, ever since he made that last deal with Zerd the mad," he said, suppressing his urge to fawn over the horses as well.

"Zerd the mad?" asked Mina as she gracefully placed her foot on the stirrup and glided into the saddle with a quick hop. Gerald noted that she did not ride side saddle and rode her summoned mount more like a knight would.

"Well, I normally charge a silver for the story, but since you're paying me so handsomely I guess I can recount the tale," said Gerald as he attempted to duplicate Mina's easy mounting. He fumbled a few times, and almost fell into the mud except he landed on one of the children gathered near the magical horse. After a few more failed attempts, the children gathered together and help boost him up unceremoniously by the butt into the saddle. Gerald smiled at the kids, and was just glad they placed him facing the right direction.

Mina gave him an amused snort as well as a soft smile at his awkward riding skills, but Gerald simply patted the children on the head and pretended that it was all his plan to engage with them.

"About twenty years ago, Westholding was beset by a terrible toad demon," explained Gerald as he slowly guided his horse towards the forest.

"Hmm…sounds like Slaad or perhaps one of the Abyssal Hezrous, depending on the size of the creature of course," said Mina. "Both are quite formidable."

Gerald nodded. "Yes it was. The beast slew many of the Westholding's finest knights and men at arms. King Gustav was almost tempted to hire adventures to deal with this threat, but the mad wizard Zerd offered to drive the creature away."

"Why would anyone want to hire someone known to be mad?"

Gerald shrugged."I guess Gustav was desperate, and I might add that later on Gustav was also attributed with the suffix 'the mad'. Anyways Zerd was willing to drive off the beast but he demanded the King's first born daughter as his payment. Something about always wanted a Princess to marry or something of that like."

Mina cringed. "Ick, this Zerd sounds disgusting."

"Aye, though I never met him, by most accounts he was very …how should I say…unhygienic, deranged, as well as a person with questionable moral character. The King being out of knights and options agreed to this crazy deal, and Zerd promptly blasted this toad demon out of sight. Although Zerd was quite insane, he was also a master evoker. That's a specialist in shooting fireballs and lightning by the way."

"I know what a evoker is. That's a term for a specialist mage. In exchange for increased proficiency in one school of magic, they give up or are greatly hampered in two other schools, typically divination and another of the less direct schools."

"Well of course, everyone knows that," lied Gerald as he filed that piece of information away for later. "Anyways with the toad demons vanquished Zerd waited greedily for the King's part of the bargain to be …well born. Fortunately for everyone, Prince Aaron was born two years later, and Prince Robert was born three years after that. Sadly the queen died at childbirth….driving the King mad with grief, hence his nick name. "

"That's horrible. Weren't there any clerics to save the queen?"

"Well, this isn't Grom, or any of the dwarven Kingdoms. This is Westholding. We don't have that many magic users of arcane or divine predilection here. I mean look at those children, they were completely dazzled by your …ummm…horse bringing spell."

"I see….and I am assuming that is the reason that the King or the Prince if he's in charge did not contact Zerd to deal with this new dragon threat? The old wizard is still bitter about his last deal."

Gerald nodded as he led Mina into the forest. While he had trouble at first, the magical horse was incredibly well tamed and almost rode itself as Gerald guided him towards the mines.

As they rode, Gerald glanced back at Mina and saw how nervous the girl was. While she seemed confident in her magic she demonstrated earlier, he could see the anxiety in her wide saucer eyes as they rode further into the woods.

While she was a mage, she didn't seem to be on the level of Zerd the mad. Did she really think her magic had a chance against the dragon? Or was she here for another purpose? She couldn't be here to offer her services to the Prince, if so she would have done so in town. And why go to the mine? She could have just followed him if that was her purpose. What business did a young, attractive girl have, looking for the supposed lair of a dragon?

As Gerald considered this, he realized what her end game was. It was so obvious!

"So, you're not here to kill the dragon are you?"

"Eh?" asked Mina in surprise, her wide saucer eyes growing even wider.

"You're here for a more…romantic purpose are you not?"

Mina opened her mouth and then shut it, and then opened it again, but seemed unable to speak. "How…how did you know?"

"Because I'm a bard, that's how. I may not be the best fighter, and my magic is illusory at best, but I know the ways of the heart better than anyone," another lie.

Gerald had only been with two women in his life, Ilsa the milkmaid that eventually ran off with Rolf the bold, and he woke up naked in a haystack once with a large fishmonger woman after a very drunken Magnus day celebration. Despite his limited experience, he assumed that Mina had even less. From his deductive skills, he guessed from her attire, age, and destination, that Mina wanted to get her claws on Prince Aaron. She would sneak into the Dragon's lair, use her magic to keep out of sight, and then play the rescued damsel when the Prince vanquished the beast. She wasn't the best looking girl he ever saw but she was far from ugly. She was quite easy on the eyes actually. In fact, he guessed after a hard bout of dragon slaying, the Prince's adrenaline might be pumping enough to make Mina look more desirable than she really was. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the Prince and Mina might be engaged in some love making after the Dragon was slain, and who knows where that would lead. However there was one big problem that Mina missed, one that Lady Tessa was all too familiar with.

"He's quite discerning you know. He'll probably question your bloodline," said Gerald, trying to let Mina down easy. "I don't want to sound crude, but he won't just bed anyone."

Mina bowed her head. "I know. I'm an orphan you know, taken in by a kindly knight. That in itself might make him reject me. Also, he appears much larger than me. He might see me as a threat and fight me."

Gerald was shocked. He's never heard of any tales of Prince Aaron beating up women, but he guessed there might be a chance he see Mina as a rival treasure seeker and not a damsel in distress. Still, it seemed unlikely that they would come to blows. "I don't think you have to worry about violence. Err…just act natural and don't ask any questions about treasure or any such thing. I'm sure you'll dazzle him with your youthful charm and exuberance. I mean, who couldn't say no to a girl who comes up with such a daring plan to snag a mate."

"You..you really think so? " asked Mina in surprise." To tell you the truth, I had my doubts, and actually questioned my only sanity when I heard the stories and decided to some here, but…but….I'm lonely…so very lonely…"

Gerald rolled his eyes. Typical pubescent infatuation. Normally he would encourage such feelings, because lovesick teenage girls were often his best paying customers, but Mina didn't really fit that bill. His heartstrings pulled when Mina said she was lonely. It seemed hauntingly tragic.

"Look Mina, I hope it works out for you, but if it doesn't know this, you don't need this guy. You're young and pretty. I've only known you for a short time, but you seem smart and capable as well. There's plenty more eligible bachelors out there, they might seem hard to find, but you just have to preserver. If he rejects you for something as stupid as you being an orphan, than that's his loss," said Gerald. "Anything worthwhile in life, never comes he easy," he added because he heard it once before and it sounded really sagey.

"I…I…thank you. That's a very kind thing to say," said Mina as her eyes well up.

Gerald smiled but kept heading towards the mines. He might have made Mina feel better, but he wasn't going to give up on his hundred gold. They could head back after he got paid.

"Gerald, how did you see through my illusion?" asked Mina after a few minutes of silence.

Illusion? Gerald didn't expect that, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense. If she was a sorceress it wouldn't surprise him that she used an alter self or disguise spell to pretty herself up. Especially considering she's a young girl wanting to snag herself a prince. Hide a blemish here, lose a few pounds there, even make your eyes look so alluringly saucer like. You might as well give yourself every advantage you can get.

"I'm a bard. I know these things," grinned Gerald. "I mean, why wouldn't you have an illusion, it just makes sense."

Mina seemed confused but accepted his statement, and seemed much cheerier for the rest of the trip.

As the pair neared the mines, Mina began to get nervous again, but Gerald could practically taste the money and forged ahead.

"You know Gerald, I'm not even sure if ..if he's a..umm male," said Mina unexpectedly. "I'm just taking a chance. It's going to be very awkward if 'he' turns out to be a 'she'. "

Gerald looked at Mina in confusion but then a moment of clarity struck him.

Of course! How could he not see it. Prince Aaron isn't Prince Aaron, she's Princess Aaron. That explains everything. It was a massive cover up to cheat Zerd. The small amount of public exposure the 'Prince' had when he was a boy. The almost total lack of any romantic relationships the 'Prince' was connected too, including the lovely Lady Tessa. It all made sense now, how could a stranger see this while he couldn't.

"Gerald, is something the matter? Why did we stop?"

Gerald's mine wandered as he considered the exact composition of his greatest ballad yet. Three verses or five? Should he make it a slow reveal, or shock the audience right away? Should Gustav be portrayed as a conniving villain, or a hero that saved his daughter? So many options so many glorious possibilities.

"Gerald, are we near the mine? Or do you detect something?"

Gerald was about to tell her that they were close, and she might as well give him his gold now, when suddenly the dusky forest was filled with echoes of howls and high pitched screams.

"BREE YARK!"

"That sounded like goblins," said Mina. "Stay here, I'm going to check."

Gerald had never heard of goblins this far south. The nearest tribe was a hundred miles north close to the lands of Dool. Still he wasn't going to complain if someone else was going to stick their necks out to check for danger. He gripped his fists as if in anger, to show that he wanted to go to, but frowned and relented to Mina. Mina then drew out a small brass lantern from her satchel and a small glowing ball of flame hissed and crackled out of it. The flame floated next to Mina's head and followed her as she rode forward, following the old mine trail.

Gerald watched her ride out of sight as the sun continued to set. He bolstered his waning courage with thoughts of gold. He felt the urge to run, but somehow he stayed against his better judgement. Was it truly the allure of coins? Or was it something else?

As he considered this he heard a rustling in the nearby bushes.

"Mina? Is that you?"

His question was quickly answered as a dozen goblins riding on wolves burst through the forest towards him. Snarling and barking their battlecrys.


	4. Chapter 4

Gerald was paralyzed with fear. One wolf with glowing red eyes probably would have done it, but a dozen of them each with a crazed goblin rider swinging their long knives and waving their pointy spears madly was just too much for him to handle. He probably would have stood in one place, complacent as the goblins hacked him into little pieces for their black wolves to gobble down, except he heard a cry up ahead.

"Gerald look out! Goblins!" shouted Mina somewhere in the darkness.

The warning was a little too late, but it was enough to spark Gerald's survival instincts. Being a bard was one thing, being a terrible bard meant you had to think quick on your feet and know when and how to run and dodge when the crowd turns against you, and considering the cavalry charge that was about to be rammed down his throat, this was as good a time to 'exit stage left'.

Though Gerald wasn't the most skilled rider, thankfully his summoned mount was childlishly easy to direct. It reared up and flailed its front hooves at the approaching goblins, breifly breaking their charge before it wheeled about and bolted into the woods. Gerald wasn't sure where he was going exactly, but was satisfied that he took the clearest path to safety. As long as he was away from the goblins, that seemed like a pretty good destination to him.

While the red eyed wolves gave chase, Gerald was relieved to see that Mina's summoned horse was quicker than they were. He felt a sense of relief until he realized that Mina was still somewhere behind him. While there existed a possibility that Mina could defend herself with her magic, Gerald highly doubt it. The only magic she seemed capable of was summoning horses, (possibly) making her breasts more alluring and doing her make up, and making that little glowing fiery ball, whatever that was. Besides, he doubted a powerful mage would need his help to corall a suitor. She could have just zapped him with her magic and made him his love slave or simply summon one of those handsome Azata or something like that.

Against his better judgement he turned sharply around a tree and then wheeled the horse around again and decided to return back in a wide arc. If the wolves were still pursuing him, he might be able to lose them in the woods. While he couldn't exactly see his path, he had a good 'feeling' of where to go, and the horse seemed able to see just fine, jumping and dodging bushes and fallen logs as it doubled back. Gerald thought he might succeed until he met Green Eyes.

Gerald's blood ran cold as a hunched goblin on an especially large red eyed wolf appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path. The wolf was covered with jangly bones, possibly tied to its matted fur, while the goblin seemed cloaked with some large oversized animal skin, possibly from a bear. It held a large rune covered gnarly looking stick, and appeared to wear a belt of skulls from various animals and ...gulp...humanoids. This whole scene would have been impossible for Gerald to see, due to the shadows surrounding him, but what gave this goblin an extra edge of creepy was his fluorescent green eyes that illuminated the area around the creature in an eerie glow.

The sight of 'Green Eyes' almost sent Gerald tumbling off his horse, but the gutsy ( in his own mind) bard veered slightly from his new adversary in an attempt to bypass him with sheer speed. It might have worked except Green Eyes did a little chant and a little staff waving and the rocks of the forest broke through the roots of the trees and formed a barrier of spiky stones that impossibly attempted to grab him.

Gerald wheeled about again, narrowly missing being slammed to the ground by the animated rocks. He considered racing around this new barrier, but his original wolf pursuers were almost on him again.

"I'll come back for you Mina. I'll be back, " he swore dramatically to no one in particular, before dashing in another random direction through the woods, fleeing for his life.

While he had a comfortable lead a few minutes ago, this time his margin of error was considerably less. He could almost feel the wolves' breath on his neck, even as a few spears sailed narrowly past him.

"You'll never catch me you stupid gobbos!" he shouted. Almost immediately after he said that, he regreted it, thinking that his taunt might infuriate the goblins and wolves even more, but as he rode onwards the rukus behind him seemed to grow faint.

"It looks like Gerald the Magnificent wins again," he laughed as he drew away from his pursuers.

No sooner then he made the boast, a blur of red eyes and black fur pounced at his flank, almost tearing his leg off.

Gerald wasn't sure what happened, but he glanced back and saw that a riderless wolf had latched onto the haunch of his horse. While the summoned steed was still racing blindly into the dark, it was visibly getting slower and its path more wobblier.

Gerald drew his rapier, careful not to stab or slash himself this time, and madly beat the wolf over its snout with his blade. A part of his brain told him, he should try to aim and perhaps pierce the creature's eye or something graceful like that, but another, much more louder part, was screaming 'Get it off! Get it off!"

To the wolf and to Gerald's surprise, his flurry of blows seem to do the trick, and the red eyed wolf release its grip and rolled off behind him on the forest floor. Gerald was about to whoop again in victory, but instead almost threw up in fear. Despite being freed, the damage had been done. The horse had been wounded and slowed enough during its brief engagement that the other wolves had surrounded Gerald. Before he could wheel about and attempt to break through the ring, one of the goblins urged its wolf to dive straight at his horse's legs. Without hesitation, the pair crashed into Gerald and his mount, getting trampled in the process but sending the phantom horse pitching forward before crashing into a tangle of hooves on its side.

Everything hurt. Badly.

Gerald was battered and bruised but forced himself to his feet even as his horse began to evaporate into the aether or wherever it had come from. Somehow he still kept hold of his rapier, but that was scarce consolation as the goblins began to group up for another attack.

Gerald wasn't sure which way they would attack from since their shadows and their damned red eyes seemed to be everywhere, but he picked a point that seemed least dangerous and began to limp his way in that direction.

"Breeehhh Yarrgghhlee…"

Gerald stopped as a bloodied goblin barred his path. It had green skin, a comically oversized head, sunken eyes, and a wide jaw full of alternating sharp or rotted teeth. The one that leaped into the legs of his horse perhaps? Its tawny right arm seemed broken and it suffered cuts and bruises everywhere ( probably much like himself) and twirled a large oversized knife over its head as it charged the bard. Though Gerald was probably less adept than this goblin in melee prowess, he was less injured and had a much greater reach advantage than his foe. He simply waved his rapier back and forth in front of him as if he was dusting and prayed that the goblin would impale itself or something.

The goblin was puzzled at Gerald's odd stance and simplistic maneuver. It paused briefly as Gerald's rapier sailed by harmlessly before charging the bard with its long dagger in hand. Gerald's blade was way out of position to counter attack, but he still had a trick or two up his sleeve ( okay he had one trick, but it was a good one). Just before the goblin jumped and gnawed on his face or perforated his stomach repeatedly with his long dagger, Gerald unleashed a cloud of multi coloured smoke in the path of the creature. The goblin attempted to stop but sailed through the cloud, tripping as it lost its balance and crashing into the ground to Gerald's side.

Gerald swiftly kicked the groaning beast in the side for good measure before jogging past it, but he could hear the other goblins braying and howling at his back. The goblins grew louder, as Gerald ran and ran, until he realized that they were just toying with him now. Like some big old cat taunting a wounded mouse, or a fat merchant lady that had lured some unsuspecting and good looking singer into her summer cabin, this was going to end poorly. The chase was over, they had won and he had lost. Now they just wanted to run him ragged before a wolf would rip out his throat, or a goblin would stab him in the back, or some other horrible demise would befall him.

As they chased and harried him for a few more minutes, the tone of the goblins seemed to change, as each goblin took turns screeching at him and bellowing into the night. Were they insulting him? Or maybe they were challenging him, hoping he would turn around and fight one of them in single combat, to cap off this night's activities. Gerald considered the possibility that he might be able to face their champion and defeat him, thus breaking the goblin's morale and scattering them in fear through the woods, but he quickly absolved himself of that ridiculous idea. There was no way he was going to stand his ground, he was going to run away like a real bard and fight another day. ( Or not fight, and just stay at home with the doors barred and the windows shuddered within the comforting folds of a big old merchant woman)

After the 'bidding' had stopped, Gerald could hear one of the goblins scream victoriously and could hear it and its wolf bearing down him. He could also hear the other goblins waiting in the wings, and knew that even if he somehow miraculously defeated his attacker, there would be another to take his place. Things seemed pretty doomed.

While Gerald was already ran ragged and almost at the point of exhaustion, he forced himself to run a little bit more. He had already smacked his face into several trunks and branches during his flight, and didn't mind if he hit himself on a few more if it meant his escape.

"Soft skin run, goblin like, make meat tastier," hissed his pursuer.

Gerald considered stopping to defy the goblin, but knew that it was just a trick. He wasn't going to stop for anything until he….

*Crash*

Gerald fell on his ass as he smashed into something solid. He could swear that there wasn't any trees in front of him (given his questionable and limited night vision) but something big and solid had shifted into his path. As he glanced up from the ground, his spine shivered as he came face to face with a creature over six feet tall, broad of shoulder and rippling with muscles, sporting two big fangs curling cruely from the sides of its mouth. It's nostrils flared as it hefted an oversized hammer over its head, pausing briefly before bringing it hurtling downwards.


	5. Chapter 5

Gerald's mind focused on the memory of gromberrys. Those red slightly tart, but always sweet berries that were the favorites of so many children, whether they were fresh, dried, or even jarred. Not the imported stuff, mass harvested by tieflings and troglodytes from Lower Lueders, but the ones his dear mother used to pick on the hills east of Daggerhall. They weren't as big or ripe as those industrially produced ones, but they were awfully sweet nonetheless. His mother would often ground these berries into a compote and lather the paste onto the crepes she made. The fresh smell would fill their small humble shack, and for a while, everything in Gerald's young hard life would be made right.

Gromberry crepes. So delicious. So satisfying.

It seemed like a fitting last thought for Gerald to hold onto as he was about to be turned into one himself. If he was going to be splattered at least he could have something good to remember this life by.

As the hammer swung downwards, Gerald braced for the crushing blow, protected only by the memory of his mother's comforting cuisine. By blade or hammer he expected it to be the end, but instead he was splattered by a spray of blood and bone.

Gerald winced at the gore that covered him, and looked at the large humanoid with the hammer before him. Did it miss and squish that goblin by accident? He didn't have to wait long as the big creature stepped past him, and booted a snarling red eyed wolf in the jaw. He knocked it aside for a second, and before it could recover, he blasted his hammer into the wolf's flank, snapping bones and bursting organs in the process.

"Ceto, left, "said a gruff voice from the shadows. Gerald glanced around and saw a humanoid similar to the big one, except he was shorter, broader, as well as more armored. This one wielded a great bow almost as tall as Gerald and loosed several shafts into a wolf that was charging his comrade's, surprise surprise, left. The force of the arrows almost lifted the wolf off the ground. Gerald however could not tell if the arrows killed it, or the big hammer that was brought down, crushing both the goblin rider and the wolf's back in one swing.

Gerald wasn't sure if this was a territory dispute, or if these big guys were simply claiming him from the goblins, but he was sure glad that he was alive and not a culinary mockery of his mother's breakfast specialty. The two of them seemed to break up the goblin's advance with their surprise attack, and was moving swiftly into their ranks. The broad one would lay down arrows to scatter or kill any goblins or wolves that didn't scurry for cover, while the tall one, presumably named Ceto, easily smashed any of his foes that he was able to catch.

Though the two killed four pairs of goblins and wolves in under thirty seconds, even in the shadows Gerald could see they were still greatly outnumbered. With their surprise gone, the goblins quickly regrouped and charged the pair in one big wave, hoping to bring them down with blade and fang through sheer numbers.

While the two big guys were tough, Gerald didn't think even they could withstand such a charge. He quickly scrambled to his feet and attempted to flee during the confusion, but as he ran forward a brightly painted red pinecone sailed past him. Gerald wasn't sure why, but he turned his head and followed the flight of this strange object as it landed into the front ranks of the charging goblins.

KABLAAMM!

Gerald was tossed to the ground as a giant explosion ripped through the wolves and goblins. His ears rang from the drums of thunder as he saw what looked like two tiny elven women hop onto a tree trunk and began throwing bundles of vines out of a bottle at the goblins still standing. While her aim wasn't as good as the shorter brute's anything the vine hit or landed close to was entangled to the ground.

"Get them while their stunned boys," shouted the two women that slowly began to merge and become one.

Ceto grunted and began to lay into the shaken and entangled goblins and wolves, crushing them with each swing of his hammer, while the other one drew a big curved blade and began slicing throats with just as much zest as his comrade.

The wolves and goblins at the rear of the failed charge, managed to turn and flee, while the goblins in the front simply wailed helplessly under the trio's assault. It looked like a fairly one-sided battle, before hands of stone burst through the ground and surrounded the small elven woman, quickly trapping her as they began to tighten inwards.

Green Eyes! The two big brutes broke off their attack. Ceto scrambled to the stone hands and attempted to pry them apart. While he was able to snap one of the rocks holding the small woman, even Gerald could see it wouldn't stop them in time from crushing her. The other brute hopped onto a tree stump and scanned the darkness with his bow drawn scanning the woods for their attacker.

Gerald considered running again, but he knew what to look for and caught a glint of green light behind a tree stump. Without thinking he snapped his fingers and a flash of smoke appeared next to the light. The brute with the bow pivoted towards the smoke and loosed several shots into the area.

Gerald wasn't sure if he hit Green Eyes or not, but it seemed to do the trick. The stone arms seemed to lose focus and loosen their grip, giving Ceto the chance to pry them apart and yank the small elven woman out of their clutches.

"They're going to regroup and come back with more. I'm going to see where they're going and maybe harass them a bit more to make think twice about returning, " said the brute with the bow. The small elven woman was still recovering her breath. She nodded before the bowman vanished into the shadows.

Gerald scanned at the impact point of the big explosion and saw that the surviving goblins and wolves took advantage of the stone hands and were able to retreat back into the woods. Gerald thought that was a splendid idea and decided to mimic it and sneak off in the other direction.

After two long strides, a pair of beefy hands grabbed him, picked him up, and placed him before the small elven woman.

"Thank you for marking their caster. I don't know if Armondo hit him or not, but he gave him a good scare, " said the woman as she gave him a crisp salute. Her voice was remarkbly husky for such a small person and had a rich foreign drawl to it. "I didn't expect these goblins to have anyone of talent amongst them."

Gerald bowed tentatively trading glances with the big brute, Ceto?, holding him and the small woman in front of him. Ceto, which he guessed was either an orc or most likely a half orc, was a creature of muscle that seemed to radiate physical power. He had a light brown bun on his head, and a bestial scowl about him. He wore partial plate and mail, that showed of his chiseled chest and nobbly abdomen, it looked more for show than protection. Gerald wondered how he didn't get skewered with that gaping hole in his armor, but then he noticed a slight blue glow around him. Magic perhaps? Besides his hammer he had a strange wicker basket on his back. The small elven woman turned out not to be an elf at all. While he had only seen them once in a caravan that passed through town, upon closer inspection Gerald was sure this woman was a gnome though her nose was a bit small and chiseled for one of their race. A gnome was a sort of cross between a Halfling and a fairy or something like that. There weren't that many in the northern lands, due to a great war the Grommers fought with them around two hundred years ago, but they were noted illusionists, artificers, and cobblers. Besides her delicate elven features, she had long platinum blond hair that was almost white, pulled back into a ponytail. She was fit with a statuesque build, which was odd considering she was only three and a half feet tall in her boots. She wore a form fitting long leather overcoat, that was decorated with many belts, pouches, and buckles. Lastly she wore an odd leather cap adorned with a menacing steel skull.

"Err…hi…I'm Gerald the Mag…err…of Daggerhall. I'm a bard," he added awkwardly.

"I am Tighyihha, former Captain of the Gnommar Second Expeditionary force, but you can call me Tig, and this is my companion Ceto. Armondo is the one with the bow, Ceto's brother, and hopefully he'll buy us some time to get out of here," said the small gnome woman. "You're lucky we came upon you, you looked like you were in a bit of a spot, but then again, maybe we were lucky you came upon us. That goblin shaman appeared out of nowhere and his magic was unexpectedly strong."

Ceto grunted in agreement and motioned that they should leave.

"Yes a fine idea Ceto. Let us leave now," agreed Tig. "This is more than we bargained for, with no signs of profit."

Gerald was overjoyed. He was rescued! He still wasn't sure what goblins and those red-eyed wolves were doing here, or what these orcs and half orcs, and this gnome were doing here as well, but they offered him a way out, and by Koryis he was going to take it. And considering there was still a dragon sneaking around the area, Gerald decided this was all one bad idea. A hundred gold is a hundred gold, but it might as well be a thousand if you were too dead to spend it. All Gerald wanted to do now, was head back to town, and get to the Greenmaiden. He still had some silver left from Sanngror after he had settled his tab, and he was going to order a big stack of Gromberry crepes to wash away the memory of this terrifying evening.

As Gerald nodded his head in agreement to Tig's extraction plan, suddenly the round face of a small young girl with large saucer eyes haunted his mind.

 _Help me Gerald. Don't leave me._ Mouthed this phantasm of his guilty conscience.

Gerald ignored her pleas. She wasn't real anyways. The headed faded away and a terrible image of poor Mina being bound and accosted by leering goblins appeared. They clawed and pawed at her dress, and threatened to do unspeakable things to the poor girl. Gerald shook off the image, only to have it replaced with a more dire image of Mina being tied tightly to a tree stump surrounded by hungry red-eyed wolves. She attempted to scream, but was silenced with an apple in her mouth, which was more surprising since he doubted the wolves cared for fruit. Gerald shook the image off once more, and winced at the imaginary heat, as he imagined Mina chained to a rock, surrounded by a wall of fire, while a great metallic gold and red, or wait was it simply just red? Dragon slithered up behind her. It snaked its serpentine head over her helpless body and was poised to either unleash a blast of fire onto her, or simply swallow her whole in a single bite.

Gerald snapped out of his terrible visions and turned to face Tig. "Err….excuse me….my..my friend Mina is still in the woods. We need to rescue her."

Tig raised an eyebrow, she looked over Gerald before shaking her head. "I'm sorry but we've spied goblins, wargs, bugbears, and even ogres in these woods. It looks like a full warband and possibly more is here. It's prudent that we warn the town as soon as possible about this threat. You've seen their shaman, and I can assure you there will be more like him. We still haven't even encountered their chief. On top of that, there's rumors of a dragon in this territory, but at least we can scratch it off our list of foes. Unfortunately it either doesn't exist or is far away from here right now. Ceto and Armondo are good soldiers but we can't face off against those odds. I'm sorry, but we can't risk everything for your friend."

Gerald was stunned by Tigg's rebuff. He had only met Mina earlier today, and their relationship didn't go beyond telling a story and guiding her into the woods, but he couldn't just leave the poor girl to her fate. He had to do something. Even if it was an incredibly stupid idea to come here to try to get the attentions of the Prince, she didn't deserve any of those terrible fates he imagined for her. Despite this, he couldn't rescue Mina himself, but he knew what he had to do.

"I…I….Mina is…isn't just my friend. She's my girlfriend. My fiancé," he lied, something he was pretty good at. With a spark of an idea in his mind, he allowed his eyes to grow moist as he decided to go for broke with a long Lemball pass. "We…we wanted to simply pick Gromberrys in the woods, an ingredient for my mother's crepe recipe, but those goblins came after us. I tried to lead the goblins away, to give her a chance, but woe is me….I think I've reached safety while she's still in danger. I …I can't just abandon her. The love of my life…."

Gerald's moist eyes started to weep manly tears and he turned away from his audience in hopes he could manipulate them to aid him. With over half the goblins and wolves, or was that wargs? What was the difference anyways? that pursued him slain, it shouldn't be too hard to trace back his steps and grab Mina. Hopefully she was smart and was hiding under a log or had climbed a big tree. If he wasn't sure if he could anything for her if she somehow ended up as the goblin army's plaything, wolf meat, or dragon food, but he had to do something.

After a few sniffles and boohoos, Gerald made an effort to regain his composure and confronted Tig and Ceto again. "Okay…I'm better now. I ..I can help you find Mina, I'm a bard. I can sing to bolster your spirits, I'll do anything to get her back, but if this woods is too dangerous for you...I understand. Not everyone is a hero. I'll…I'll guess we'll just head to town. Hopefully I can convince the militia to help me. Maybe they have some heroes. We'll probably attempt a rescue in the morning. I just pray to Koryis my dear sweet Mina will be alright till then."

Despite her military attire, Tig looked distressed. Her stern face softened as she looked at Ceto for his opinion on the matter.

"I like crepes," shrugged the big half orc as he patted the gnome's tiny head. She squirmed under his grasp before finally escaping and facing Gerald.

Tig sighed. "I want to help, I truly do. We are not bad people, and nothing would please me more than to get your girl back. We probably stand a better chance to extract her than those militia fools, but…I can't risk my men. You did save my life back there, so I guess I owe you one, but I cannot repay you in this manner. "

"I'll tell Armondo to mark a path back to here. At least it will make it easier for you to return in the…"

Before Tig could finish, the shorter broader half orc burst through the brushes, grinning ear to ear with his fang filled mouth.

"Captain, captain. I saw it!" claimed Armondo.

"Eh? What did you see?"

"The dragon! A big thirty footer! A fire breather to boot."

"Really? The dragon truly exists?" asked Tig with wide expectant eyes. Ceto raised an eyebrow as well at Armondo's claim. Tig then retrieved a small box from one of her satchel and flipped the lid revearling a brightly glowing gem. Ceto, Armondo and Tig all gasped at its light. " It does exist. I guess it was just out of range earlier. It must have a wider territory. Was it red? Brass? Gold?"

"Red as a Gromberry."

Ceto and Tig both seemed to straighten at this piece of information.

"Aye, I climbed the tallest tree I could find while tracking the goblins and saw it about half a mile west from here. It was locked in battle with a half dozen knights," exclaimed Armondo.

Tig smiled and turned to Gerald. "Oh, it looks like there's a change of plans. We'll rescue your little girlfriend, but it seems we're going to make a little detour first. You said you were a bard right? Well we could use a hand it seems."

Gerald wasn't sure if this was a good thing, or if he should just take a head start and run screaming back into town.


	6. Chapter 6

The two half orcs and gnome, smoothly slipped past the trees, brush, and rocks of the now dark forest. Their movements were fluid, like those of some hunting cat, as they blended with the shadows cast by the moon light to make their passing almost unnoticeable. While Tig was small and her footsteps were soft, Ceto and Armondo were also surprisingly quite adept at shifting their bulk making their strides as quiet as that of a squirrel or a lemming.

Gerald on the other hand, smashed into every log, and low hanging branch in his path. Twice he stubbed his toe on a rock and yelped in pain, and once he ran full force into a tree, spinning him about before landing on his ass. Each time he stumbled, the trio ahead of him paused and glared at him, expecting him to stop being such a fool, but it was no help. The further Gerald went into the forest, the more bumbling and ,more importantly, the more noise he made.

"Acht, we have to rethink this," said Tig as the last of her patience wore out. "We either have to go ahead by ourselves, or send him on his way. This won't do."

"I'm sorry. This is hard for me, " apologized Gerald. "I can't see in the dark like you three."

Armondo shook his head. "Actually, Ceto and I can see in the dark. Captain Tig here only has a heighten ability to see lower levels of light. In pitch blackness, she's as blind as you are."

"Torch?" suggested Ceto.

Gerald nodded vigorously at the suggestion. A torch would not only solve his vision problem, but also warm him up a bit. The northern nights were already cold enough, but it just seemed that much colder in the middle of forest, surrounded by goblins and a dragon.

"Nein," said Tig as she shook her head." At least the forest breaks up the noise he makes, a torch will point everyone towards us."

"Errr….tie a rope to me and one of the big guys?" suggested Gerald.

Tig shook her head again. "That won't stop you from tripping, as well as making you a liability in combat."

At the suggestion of combat, Gerald blanched slightly and shrunk a little. Rescuing Mina was one thing, fighting goblins and dragons was something else. He already had his share of being chased by goblins and wargs, though he still thought of them as red eyed wolves.

"Hmmm…we could use an extract on him," suggested Armondo."I know your ability to create them are limited, but it's either that or leave him behind. Frankly I rather have a bard at our side, even one that trips on his face, at the cost of one of your potions."

Tig pursed her lips, unhappy with the half orc's suggestion, but finally relented and sighed. She took a glass bottle from one of her satchels, and began rapidly throwing twigs, dirt, powder, and more dirt it before adding some water to the mix.

"What's an extract? Is this going to hurt?"

Armondo shrugged. " Tig is an alchemist, a damn good one I might add. That's kind a cross between a wizard and an artificer that concentrates on liquid and material magics. As you can guess, she can synthesis potions rapidly with her alchemy skills, but it is a draining process. She can only make a limited number of extracts before having to recharge herself. "

"Oh," said Gerald as he nodded sagely. He had no idea what the half orc said but he didn't want him to think him an idiot.

After a few seconds, the strange brew that Tig had combined turned into a slightly glowing blue potion. She handed it to Gerald with a frown. "Drink it quick, we don't have all night."

Gerald hesitated, there was no way he was going to drink this, but the impatient glares of the trio and the unspoken threat of being left behind spurred him to quaff the potion. It tasted oddly like cinnamon with little after taste. It tingled briefly, before giving his whole system a slight shock. Gerald jumped at the current flowing through his body, but when it was over he was shocked to find he could now see clearly in the darkness as Armondo had suggested. It was as the darkness and shadows were chased away, and everything was under a soft ever present light. It was amazing but also a bit disconcerting, since nothing seemed to cast a shadow, but Gerald quickly managed to adjust.

"Go? Now?" asked Ceto.

"Ja, " said Tig. Armondo signaled for them to wait a few seconds before he raced through ahead through the darkness to scout.

Though his vision was greatly improved, Gerald still managed to trip and bump his way through the forest as he attempted to match the trio's pace. He didn't want to fall behind again, especially after they wasted one of Tig's extracts on him, so he pushed himself to keep up, and suffered the scratches and bruises.

After what seemed like an hour to Gerald, or more likely ten minutes, Armondo signaled the group to stop. The stout half orc sniffed the air, and paced back and forth. Finally he motioned the group to stay as he went out by himself to scout. As they waited, Ceto found a defensive enough clearing for them to rest. Though Tig kept pace better than Gerald, the bard could see that the gnome was tired as well, mainly due to her short legs attempting to keep pace. A mile to Gerald was like four to her. She simply stretched her legs before sitting down, leaning on Ceto's muscular leg as a rest.

"So….why are you guys in this forest anyways? I've never seen you in town, and I find it disconcerting that I happen to just bump into you guys in the middle of nowhere," asked Gerald, sensing this was as good a time as any to make some talk. While he was just happy for the trio's aid in finding Mina, the bard in him wanted to know their story.

Ceto shrugged at the question. Tig however, seemed happy to indulge his curiosity. "The three of us, well you may call us Dragonslayers. We heard there was a bounty here, and came to collect it. This is normally out of our way, but we heard rumors it was a Red. That bumped this particular destination higher on our to do list. They're rare, and quite valuable you know."

Gerald was surprised. That explained a bit, as why they were here, but he always imagined Dragonslayers to be like knights in shining armor, like Prince Aaron and the Silver Guard, not two tribal vagabonds and a leather trenchcoat midget.

"So…is there good money in dragonslaying," asked Gerald in morbid fascination.

"It depends. The bounties are laughable at best, they only make up a small fraction of our income. We typically ask for salvage rights since collection of their horde is much more lucrative. Also, depending on the type and more importantly the size of the dragon, their scales, horns, teeth and claws are worth quite a bit to a specialized black smith, weaponsmith, or armourer. Dragon weapons and armour is hard to match. Also the medicinal value of their organs and blood can be quite lucrative. As an Alchemist I typically keep it for myself, but I'm willing to share and trade our bounty for reagents I need from other mages."

Gerald was impressed with the gnome's business model, but still wondered about how successful they were at their craft.

"So…err how many dragons have you killed."

Tig fell silent as she appeared to be in deep thought. Gerald could see she was counting to herself.

"Roughly a dozen true dragons," replied the gnome eventually. "Five whites, three blacks, a brass, blue, silver, and a green. No reds yet which is why we are here. Most of the ones we've slain were twenty footers or less, but we once bagged a fifty footer, a big blue near Ylarrum that was preying on caravans."

"Err…I don't know much about dragons but aren't Brass and Silver dragons…umm good guys?" gulped Gerald. While the trio had aided him, he had no idea of their moral disposition. They could be as villainous as the goblins for all he knew.

"Ja, the metallic coloured dragons are typically known as the 'good' dragons, while the chromatic ones are known as the 'evil' dragons, but Dragons are more like people than you think. We've encountered supposedly evil dragons that have been pretty good chaps, and good dragons that are a danger to all," explained Tig.

"Oh, I didn't know that" said Gerald as he considered this new information. He wondered if there were good goblins and bad elves and angels as well.

" As for lesser dragons," continued Tigg. " Acht, we've killed at least three score. That includes dragonne, dragon horses, wyverns, dragon turtles, drakes, and a few chimera. The pay is less, and the salvage considerably less lucrative, but at least there's plenty more work . You'll be surprised what these beasts can and will rut with and their host of half dragon spawn litters they strew about the countryside. "

Gerald attempted to imagine a thirty foot dragon attempting to mate with a lion, horse, turtle, or some other ridiculous thing and shook his head in an attempt to wipe the brain scarring image from his mind. It was like that traumatizing time he walked in on his aunt Edna and Otis the blacksmith during the Moon harvest festival. "That must be ….err physically stressful for the objects of their affection."

Ceto grinned widely and stared down at the gnome but Tig simply elbowed his leg and rolled her eyes. "Nein, nein, nein, it's not as dirty as you think. Almost all dragons have an alternate form or depending on the age and species multiple alternate forms. Basically they can shapechange into a fixed creature, most of the time into the form of a small animal to move unseen, or more often than not a humanoid to blend into the local civilization. Most of the weaker dragons like whites and blacks, lack that ability until they grow bigger and older, but the more dangerous ones, like blues, reds, silvers and golds, can not only shapechange into their alternate forms at an early age but can maintain that form indefinitely. "

"Wait….so a dragon can appear as a human? One could be living in my village without me knowing."

"Ja, they can, but they rarely do. A dragon would most likely get bored, but the point you made is valid. Some dragons have been known to live in a city all their lives, keeping their humanoid guise for decades without anyone finding out, but that is the exception. Most however, seem to relish wallowing in their true form, the draconic pride thing and all, and only use their alternate forms for trade and other commercial ventures. While we make a fortune on dragon body parts, some of them make quite a good living selling the arms and weapons of those that tried to kill them."

Gerald imagined a dragon riding into town with the burned out armors of Prince Aaron and his Silver Guard, and he blanched at the thought of the grisly image.

"Err, so what was that glowing rock you had earlier," asked Gerald, attempting to change the subject.

Tig seemed puzzled at first, but then nodded knowingly. "Oh, that's our dragonstone. Most of the time its inert, but it glows when a dragon is near. I don't know roughly…"

"A league," replied Ceto.

"Aye a league. The brighter it is the more powerful the dragon. We actually thought we missed the beast or the authorities were mistaken when we first reached this forest, because our dragonstone did not glow, but its glowing now and it indicates a moderately powerful dragon nearby. "

"Moderately?" asked Gerald nervously. "Is that an easy bounty moderate and everyone gets some easy loot, or a suicide mission moderate and I should be thinking of bolting back to town."

Tig laughed. "Your concern is noted but fear not, this is what we do for a living. We've trained and prepared simply to fight dragons and we have a few tricks to turn the tide in our favour. That's not to say we are guaranteed to win, we've lost a few companions in the past, but I'll warrant the odds are in our favor."

Gerald faked a smile at her comment. While big burly half orcs, and an Alchemist or whatever Tig was probably had a good chance to survive, he believed that his near imminent death would keep the averages balanced.

As Tig and Gerald continued to talk, Armondo sneaked back into their cluster of trees and motioned for the group to follow.

"Did you find the dragon? Did the knights kill it? "asked Tig in excitement. Her anticipation rising.

Armondo shook his head. "I don't think so, but I've found some strange …things," with that the trio of Dragonslayers and the bard crept into the night, and into the clearing that half orc scout had seen earlier.

"Look, there's some burn marks everywhere, but something is wrong," he said indicating burned patches in the clearing and the surrounding woods.

Ceto approached the indicated areas and sniffed them. "Small, clean burn."

Gerald scratched his head. "Eh?"

Tig examined them as well, but instead of sniffing she took several samples and placed them in a vial and held them to the moonlight. "Red and Gold dragons breath their flames in a the shape of a great cone, while these burn marks are more in line of a Brass dragon, a creature that roams in the desert. Also, dragon fire is hot. Hotter than most forges. It also burns clean. It would have completely incinerated this grass and those trees, and depending on its size might even turn the underlying rocks into glass. These fires, are hotter than campfires, but not dragon fire hot. While some dragons are known to be able to regulate the area of effect of their breath weapons and even control the amount they breath, I doubt a thirty footer would have mastered it. That's small for a red dragon."

"Small?" choked Gerald. A thirty foot long dragon was plenty big for him. Hells, even a ten foot dragon was too large for him to handle. "Hey, how do you know so much about dragons anyways? Especially if you've only killed like twelve of them. "

Tig smiled. "Well, believe it or not, we learn from other dragons. Remember, not all dragons are all that bad, and even the bad ones have limits. We mainly hunt the deviants, the mad dogs of the pack if you may. The kind that would empty a mine and a raze a mining camp for no reason. We kind of do their dirty work to …how should we say…maintain their reputations. But that's a story for another time."

"If you're done showing off to the boy and taking on airs, come see this," said Armondo as he pointed to some bushes roughly hundred feet off the clearing to the side.

Tig brushed off the slight and walked and examined the area indicated and then shook her head. Gerald followed and saw a dead knight, his silver armor crushed by several heavy blows. Surrounding the knight was about five dead goblins similar to the ones that chased him earlier, and another goblin covered in fur that was the size of Ceto. They looked to have been slained by the knight.

"I think that's Sir Fredrick, one of Prince Aaron's Silver Guard. His face is mashed up, but I can tell from his long mustache," shivered Gerald. While he has seen dead people before, this was the first time he's seen a dead knight. He considered taking some of the knight's armor and weapons but they were too heavy or broken for him to use. Besides, if all their training and heavy armor couldn't save them, what chance did he have, regardless of gear?

Armondo seemed to slowly follow a path that was all but unseen except for him. He widened his step like a child playing a game as he went back and forth over some unseen trail. "Something here had a long stride. I'm guessing an ogre or a giant."

Armondo then went back to the clearing and looked around the edges again. "There was a battle here. Fire was rained down on them, but it doesn't appeared that the dragon landed. It didn't need to though as it looks like goblins, bug bears, and unless I'm mistaken at least one ogre or giant rushed them from the flanks. I'm guessing it was a trap and fifty of them surrounded the knights. Several horses fell while the others attempted to break out."

Armondo then went back to the path where the dead knight was. "Some of the goblins pursued and this Frederick guy made a stand here, while his fellows escaped. The main group of goblins took their dead and any of the horses and possibly prisoners as well from the clearing. It was a quick operation. They headed to the northwest while the runners and their pursuers went west."

"Northwest is the old mine. That's where I lost Mina," interrupted Gerald. Thoughts of poor Mina being tortured or worse again haunted his thoughts.

"Acht…this is disconcerting," considered Tig. "I thought we might be able to help the Prince and share in the loot, or at least pick over the dragon's corpse if they happened to have slain it, but I didn't consider the goblins working with the dragon. While dragons are known to take minions, typically only as guards or pets. I didn't think this dragon had a lair nearby, unless it had decided to move into this area. Which is again odd, since there doesn't seem to be anything valuable here. Treasure is a large motivating factor for these fellows."

"Ruins?" asked Ceto.

"Ja," agreed Tig who turned to Gerald. "Are there any ruins of note nearby, old towers, or even rumors of dungeons?"

Gerald shook his head.

"Well boss, we have three choices. We chase the main group, goblins, dragons and all. We track down the group they were pursuing and hopefully catch them hammer and anvil with the remaining knights. That is if any are still alive. Or we do the sensible thing and go home. Alert the kingdom that their dragon infestation is much worse than they think it is. It's more like a dragon invasion," said Armondo.

Gerald like the third option best. Going home to an ale and some gromberry crepes seemed like a good idead to him. He wanted to say option one, be the hero and save Mina, but if these Dragonslayers think it's a bad idea, he was apt to agree with them.

"Something is fishy about this whole thing," said Tig. "I think it best if we find ourselves a knight if any are still surviving, and find out what's going on. We'll take the western path."

Gerald somehow knew she was going to say that. He forced himself to smile, as he followed the trio west.


	7. Chapter 7

The group tightened up its formation as it followed the western path. While previously Armondo was out of sight as he scouted, the stout half orc was now only twenty feet ahead. Even little Tig ,which was happy to jog to keep pace, had climbed into the strange wicker basket on Ceto's back, using him as a bizarre kind of mount as she scanned the flanks from her new vantage point like some kind of leather clad gnome turret.

Though Gerald was initially amused at the strange sight of the gnome on the half orc's back, he soon became jealous of her position. She at least had some cover and a big guardian, while he was pretty much out in the open with no one to protect him. There was no turning back now however, all he could do was quicken his stride slightly placing himself between Armondo and Ceto, and hoped that would be enough to save him if things turned rough.

As the group ventured further, Armondo suddenly raised a close fist. Gerald wasn't sure what it meant and kept walking, but was quickly hauled back by Ceto.

"Stop," grunted the big half orc.

Gerald nodded nervously and watched Armondo first walk to the left, and then walk backwards retracing his steps before walking to the right. He the sniffed the air, walked backwards a bit, before resuming his original trail to the left. Waving the group forward after twenty paces.

"What was that all about?"

"I'm not sure," replied Tig from her basket. "I'm assuming that whoever was fleeing laid several false trails to throw off their pursuers. Hopefully we'll find the right one and meet up with them before the goblins do."

"Hmm, Sir Markham is supposed to be a master woodsman, maybe he survived."

"Well, let's hope so," grunted Armondo before resuming his search.

Gerald wasn't sure what to hope for right now. A part of him wanted them to get lost, give up their pursuit, and return to town and warn the guard. But another part of him thought of poor Mina. While she had insisted him to lead her here, he still felt partially responsible for the predicament that she was in. Sorceress or not, he knew she was in trouble. His initial plans of following the Prince and writing a tale of how he slew the dragon seemed like a memory now. A very distant memory.

As they pressed forward on the left path, Armondo raised the fist again followed by a flat hand that slowly dropped itself. Gerald stopped and glanced back at Ceto for information on the second sign. The big half orc slowly lowered himself dropping out of sight, while Tig on her back raised a finger to her lips.

Gerald nodded and also fell and remained silent. He wondered how long he would have to remain in such a state, but was soon answered as a pair of towering humanoids strode, over ten feet tall, through the forest before them. They didn't seem to be on any paths, and talked in a slow rough tongue that Gerald could not understand. Despite this, he could still understand the gist of their conversation, it didn't take a linguist to know that they were irritated and angry from the tone of their voices.

The pair walked within thirty feet of Armondo but did not seem to notice him. Gerald however noticed something on them. Attached to one of their belts was the body of Sir Markham hanging upside down. His great bow Reaver, was still slung over his shoulder and his long blond hair dangled to the giants knees. He looked like he was having a long sleep except he was missing both his arms. Gerald winced as he imagined the giants tugging on each limb as brave Sir Markham struggled before they yanked them off as if they were playing some child's game.

Gerald wanted to scream in terror but forced himself to remain silent as the giants continued. Screaming would probably not be good for either his repuation or his health. The giants stopped briefly and sniffed the air around them when they directly before them. Gerald thought for sure that they had been detected and he was soon to have his arms pulled off, but they simply continued on their way, bickering or swearing in their own tongue before they walked out of sight. Even after they left their vicinity, Armondo remained still for a good five minutes before signaling the group to advance again.

"Was that their…master Woodsman?" asked Armondo.

Gerald gulped and nodded.

Armondo said nothing, as he waved them to stay low as they continued. "Their tracker is gone, but the path continues. Be on your guard incase the giants return."

"Eyes, balls, knees, ankles," grunted Ceto in a low growl, something that Gerald assumed was his version of whispering.

"Eh? What does he mean?" asked Gerald.

"Ceto is trying to be helpful. He means that if you have to fight a giant, go for their weak spots. Their eyes, their knee caps , their ankles, and of course their reproductive organs," explained Tig. Afterwards, Ceto swung his hammer in a low rising arc, and pretended to strike someone in the groin with his big hammer.

Gerald winced at the graphic imagery, but still smiled at Ceto for attempting to be helpful.

The group continued onwards for a few minutes before Armondo stopped at the side of a hill, at the bottom of a cliff. "Hrmm…the path ends here. It just stops."

"Do you think the dragon swooped down and plucked the last of them away?" asked Tig.

"Possibly, but unlikely. There a lot of cover overhead foliage, and some of the branches should have snapped if any thirty foot dragon attacked from above. I'm looking at this cliff, but see no signs of rocks moved, or any shifting about it. Unless of course they used magic to traverse it."

Tig considered this. "Can you circle around and scale this hill, get a better look? Or at least find signs of a struggle. The path continued so I would guess that some of the knights survived. I'm not giving up this lead until all hope is exhausted."

Armondo grunted and slung his bow ominously in the fashion Sir Markham did, before fishing out some sort of strange metal claws. The half orc scout then walked around fifty feet along the cliff face almost out of sight. Gerald watched curiously as Armondo then slipped on the claws on his hands and feet and began climbing the walls slowly like a great cat.

"We'll wait it out here till he returns. If there's no sign of the knights we'll call off the search and return to town. I want that dragon, but I'm not going to attack it blindly when it has an army at his beck and call."

Gerald couldn't complain. That sounded like a wise and good idea. He liked the idea that someone else took his dilemma of his safety versus Mina's safety out of his unsure hands.

As Armondo scaled the walls Ceto took the time to sit down and rest. As the big orc rested, Tig climbed out of her basket and wrapped her arms around the big half orc's head and appeared to smile as she rested as well. Gerald thought it looked like Ceto was snuggling up to a child's stuffed doll or something and thought it looked weird, though when he thought about it, Gerald wouldn't mind snuggling up to Ceto if he could. For safety reasons of course. Knowing it was awkward to muscle into Tig's action, Gerald saw an alcove set in the cliff for him to rest. Without a half orc of his own, he thought it looked comfortable enough as it was overgrown with moss and shrubs. Gerald noticed a strange lilac smell but thought nothing of it before he sat down and suddenly tumbled through the foliage down a previously unseen chasm.

Gerald fell backwards, striking his head once, flipping over and sliding down on his hip, before free falling briefly. He couldn't believe his luck. Instead of being roasted by a dragon, torn apart by wolves, hacked by goblins or squished by giants, he would meet his end by falling down a pit.

Instead of breaking his neck on the way down though, he landed on something hard but with a significant amount of give.

"Oooff…" gasped a femine voice in the dark.

Gerald shot up and fumbled for his rapier. That wasn't him. He looked down and saw a woman sprawled beneath him, kicking back rocks as she attempted to stab some invisible foe.

"Stay back, I won't go down without a fight," she warned in a scared voice as she stabbed blindly in the air. Though she missed badly, she didn't miss by much. All Gerald could do was scramble back out of her range before she sliced a piece of his leg off.

As he put some distance between the prone woman with the dagger, he suddenly realized who it was. Somehow he had fallen atop Lady Tessa, first paladin of the Silver Guard. Even, on her haunches, beaten, and covered with rock and dirt, she struck a dashing and alluring figure. Under her silver armor, he could still make out her ample curves and long limbs. Even her matted and bloodied long creamy hair still had a fresh lilac scent to it.

"You..fell down the chasm in the alcove!" exclaimed Gerald, stating the obvious.

Tess clutched her dagger closer, though her frantic attacks had stopped. "Who…who is this? " she asked tentatively.

Though Gerald had only seen Lady Tessa from afar, he had to admit he had a 'thing' for the beautiful paladin. With her seductive blue eyes, pouting lips, and rosy cheeks it wasn't that hard to believe. Actually, he wouldn't be surprised if all the single men and half the married men had a thing for her. She was the epitome of grace, power, and beauty, and occupied an important rank in the Kingdom of Westholding's hierarchy. Meeting her was one of his fantasies, along with eating the world's biggest gromberry crepe and catching the leprechaun king and shaking him down for all his gold. However this wasn't the way he expected it. Even if he met her at the bottom of a deep chasm, he expected her to be a bit more….determined, brave, even defiant. The woman before him seemed more like a scared little girl, even more scared than himself which was saying a lot. She was supposed to be the leader of the Silver Order, a paladin for Koryis' sake.

Despite this disconnect between reality and fantasy, Gerald's instincts kicked in. "Fear not Lady Tessa, or can I call you Tess? It is I , Gerald the Magnificent, bard extraordinaire, my companions and I have come to rescue you." He conveniently left out the part about recruiting her to fight the dragon and rescue Mina, since he wasn't really sure if his heart was really into that. Rescuing one maiden seemed like a good day's work already.

"You can call me Tessa or Tess or whatever you want," she replied still unsure who she was talking to. Gerald then realized he was still under the effects of Tig's extract while she being a normal human like himself could not see in the darkness. "You have to get me out of here so I can warn the kingdom. We were ambushed by a dragon and his horde of minions. Frederick sacrificed himself to give Harvey and I a chance to escape, but they were relentless and were soon on our trail again. Markham attempted to confuse them, but the darkness slowed our retreat. The last time I saw him he…he… attempted to lead them away so I can make it out of this damn forest….but I fear the worse… I heard him scream as the giants...as the giants laughed. I tried to escape, but the darkness obscures everything. I grew tired, found shelter in an alcove, and the next thing I knew I fell down this pit."

With that she dropped her dagger, and threw both hands over her eyes and cried. Gerald was moved by this display but warning bells triggered in even his thick skull. Was this really the Champion of the realm? The heroine that charmed the heart of brave Prince Aaron? If so, he was sorely disappointed. To him, she looked like some teenage girl crying in armor, a really pretty and sexy girl, but a crying one nonetheless.

"There, there," he said as he hefted her up and gave her a hug. He half expected this was all a ruse, and he was going to get an armored knee to his crotch, or she was going to change into one of those monsters that look like a girl, but was actually only interested in ripping one's guts out, but instead she hugged him back and sobbed softly on his shoulder.

 _This is nice he thought. This is really nice. I can get use to this._

Gerald wouldn't mind having her embrace him tightly for a few more minutes, but the seriousness of their situation brought him back to reality. He scanned the cavern he was in and saw it was a small chamber with more smaller cracks to either side. As a boy Gerald and his friends played in similar caverns near Daggerhall. The druids said they were naturally occurring caves formed by water erosion or something like that, and it didn't surprise him that a similar cave would be in these woods.

"TIG! CETO! HELP!" shouted Gerald. He waited a bit, almost certain the pair would rescue him, but no aid arrived.

"Are your companions coming?" asked Tess fearfully, holding him tight, refusing to release him.

"They should be, but I'm not sure," complained Gerald. "Maybe we're too deep for them to hear me."

After a few minutes Gerald decided to extradite them out of the cave himself. Given that Lady Tess had no light source, he could understand how she could remain trapped here. While the cavern was small, it was incongruous and would be hard to find the exact dimensions of the room if you had to grope around blind. Not to mention the very real hazard of hitting one's head onto the overhanging rocks, something that Gerald experienced plenty of times when he was a child. Gerald tore a bit of his shirt off and wrapped it on both his and Tess' head for protection before attempting to scale up the small cave to the crack above him.

While the crack was a good ten feet over his head, the cavern provided enough foot and hand holds to climb up. He reached the crack above him after a bit of scrambling and experimenting with the ledges and was able to lift and heft Tess up as well. She was tall, but not that heavy even with her gear. He feared he wouldn't be able to heft Tess up and almost salivated at the idea of ordering her take off her armor, but she was surprisingly light. He had examined Frederick's armor earlier and noted how heavy it was, Tess' armor however seemed as encumbering as a heavy coat, and he noted it was incredibly flexible as well. Magic perhaps?

Regardless of the physics, Gerald managed to tug her up to the crack, and after that it was incredibly easy. Though he tumbled down the crack earlier, it was only at forty five degree angle. Also, while he cursed the rocks that bruised and bashed him as he fell down, he was thankful for them as it made climbing out easier. So with Tess tightly wrapped around him, Gerald made his way to the entrance of the chasm.

"Thank you….Gerald. I thought I was doomed. I did not think a hero like you would find and rescue me."

Gerald grew red. He had never been called a hero before, though he always fancied himself as one. While he had his brush with death with the two headed ogre and the wolf ridden by pixies, he had never done anything like rescue a damsel. For some reason he felt embarssed to play this up as he reached the surface. As soon as she saw him and his motley companions he knew she would be disappointed. There was no reason for her expectations to fall lower from an even more inflated height.

As he neared the top, he saw that brush had covered the hole, and guessed that's how he fell in. He probably just leaned back, thinking it was something soft to rest on before he tumbled unexpectedly down. He guessed that was how Tess fell as well, and resolved to hack up the plants above to prevent future accidents. Before he reached the surface however, Gerald stopped as a monstrous roar echoed down his hole, followed by the distinct sounds of Goblins yelling.

"Bree Yark!"

"They're here! They followed me!" gasped Tess frantically. "We have to get back down and hide."

Gerald agreed. That was a fine idea, but …..something tugged at him to reach the surface. Tig, Ceto, and even Armondo might need his help however unlikely. He wasn't sure what number of foes they were facing, but if he could reach the surface, the presence of Lady Tess might swing the battle in their favor. Sure, she hadn't exactly been the Paladin lord he was expecting, but she was still the leader of the Silver Guard. She was probably shaken from the death of her friends, and this was the carthisis to launch her back into heroic form. If not, well…he could always jump down the hole and pray and wait it out.

Instead of retreating, Gerald found himself pulling the both of them forward, until they reached the top of the chasm.

"What…what are you doing?" pleaded Tess frantically.

"Time to be a hero," said Gerald, though he was referring to her and definitely not himself.


	8. Chapter 8

Gerald was caught totally off guard by what he saw when he exited the chasm, though truth be told he had no real expectation of what was awaiting him. He had heard the sounds of battle, shouts, and yells and made the assumption that a battle was taking place. Since Tig and Ceto were still there, he guessed that they were probably fighting back to back or something, and given the enemies that they had seen, he surmised they were facing goblins, wargs, those red eyed wolves, and some of those big hairy goblins. While he saw giants earlier, he was an optimist and didn't think they would have to face them. Remembering Sir Markham's fate, he gave the half orc and gnome little chance against them if they showed up. Also he doubt there was a dragon above him, because he didn't feel any blasts of heat. While Tig and Armondo were debating the intensity of dragon fire earlier, Gerald was pretty sure he would have felt either a bon fire or a furnace if there was one close.

What Gerald finally saw when he exited the chasm, were the two giants he had prayed would not be present and they were battling what appeared to be an impossibly big Ceto. Though the half orc was a good six foot and change, he was now thirteen feet of towering muscle. While the giants were slightly shorter to the now humongous half orc, they still looked slightly bigger due to their massive bulk. Gerald was confused at first, but finally recalled Tig's ability to brew potions on a whim, and just assumed that she made her big guardian really big to even the odds.

Over two dozen goblins waited safely at the edge of the woods, while a few more appeared to have been crushed underfoot by either Ceto or the giants. A few of the wargs, circled the oversized combatants, taking turns to dart in to try to take a bite of the big half orc.

As Gerald decided to take a course of action, he was pushed to the side by Lady Tessa. Gerald was about to complain but was interrupted as metal clanged on metal. One of the big bugbears had appeared out of nowhere before him and swung his axe down at Gerald, and only Tessa's quickness and metal shield managed to stop him from becoming a bardic version of Gromberry jam.

While Tess seemed vulnerable and less than knightly in the cavern below, she seemed valorous and ready for battle now. She hacked away furiously at the bug bear with her blade, wounding the creature several times as she forced it back. It appeared she was gaining the upper hand, but before she could slay her opponent, another bug bear stepped out of the shadows. The wounded bug bear fell back as his cohort took the lead, and after catching its breath, both surged forward towards Tess, driving the knight back into the alcove, almost knocking over Gerald in the process.

"I need some …help," gasped Tess as her initial fury drained. She barely blocked an overhead mace swing by the second bugbear before the first one clipped her in the shoulder with a glancing blow with his axe. The weapon crumpled her silver pauldron and caused her to stumbled backwards. She regained her footing however and launched a wide slash to keep her opponents at bay.

Gerald attempted to support the paladin as he lunged forward with his rapier. To his surprise he connected squarely to the second bugbear's chest, but his pitiful weapon bounced off its iron breast plate. The bug bear looked annoyed and simply swung his mace at Gerald. To his credit, the bard managed to withdraw his weapon to the guard position and parried the blow, but to his discredit, his grip was too weak and his weapon went flying out of his hands. The bug bear moved in to finish Gerald, but Tess managed to nick him in the leg and forced him back.

"Use your bard magic, use your bard song!" shouted Tig from some unseen location.

Gerald wasn't sure what to do. He was familiar with the concept of bard song, except he wasn't really good at singing. Why couldn't there be a bard dance, or a bard charcoal sketching power? Also the very nature of bard song implied some sort of combat, and that wasn't Gerald's forte. He preferred storytelling and even a bit of satire humor rather than whipping ones friends into a frenzy for battle. The whole idea of using art for a catalyst for violence was abhorrent to him.

Instead of embarrassing himself with a song, Gerald attempted to retrieve his rapier. The art of war should be kept separate from the art of singing. That idea was short lived though as the first bug bear attempted to hack off his hand with a swing from his axe. Tess was worn down and couldn't stop the blow, but Gerald's heightened sense of survival warned him to withdraw his hand before it was severed.

Gerald looked around, hoping to see some way to escape before he spotted the gnome on Ceto's back. She threw a black potion bottle at the feet of one of the giants, forming a wide pool of black vicious liquid when it broke. The giant standing on it lost its footing, before crashing into the ground squishing some goblins in the process. Ceto attempted to smash the prone giant, but its comrade stood guard as it scrambled to get up. The giant blocked Ceto's hammer with its club, and even managed to smash its great fist into the half orc's jaw, spinning him about and spraying blood everywhere.

"Acht! Sing you idiot! Sing! Sing! " shrieked Tig. "We're getting slaughtered."

Gerald knew he had no choice. If it was a choice between sullying his art and ….living… Gerald chose living. The bard coughed a bit before belting out a song he improvised on the spot. His voice cracked almost immediately, the lyrics were stupid and plain, but at least he was loud and clear.

 _"Giants, giants, go away! "_

 _"Come again another day?"_

The battlefield seemed to stop as everyone turned their attention towards him.

"That was horrible!" said Tess. "I thought you said you were a bard!"

"Singing bad," frowned Ceto as he shook his head in disappointment.

Even several of the goblins and giants, squinted their eyes and stuck out their tongues in disapproval.

Despite the harshness of his critics, Gerald's song seemed to have the desired effect, though in an indirect manner. While his singing didn't seem to inspire his allies, it did seem to make them madder and fight harder.

Tess manage to get a second wind as she charged the two bug bears. She smashed her shield into the one with the axe's face, while she buried her blade into the mace wielding one's stomach. The force of her attack, piercing even it's iron breast plate. The mace bug bear fell back in shock as it died, clutching and wresting her sword away in a final act of defiance, but Tess simply drew her dagger as she slashed wildly at her remaining stunned foe.

Ceto was able to recover from the punch to the face just in time. He twisted towards the incoming giant, striking it hard in the chin with his elbow, before twisting back into his original position with hammer in hand.

"Acht! It's working! It's working! Keep it up! " shouted Tig, as she threw a great red spiked chestnut at a mob of goblins that attempted to flank Ceto. The chestnut bounced on a warg, sticking to its black hide. The red eyed wolf attempted to claw it out, but vanished in a flash of fire, steam, and flying fur, sending the goblins nearby tumbling in every direction.

Gerald didn't exactly have a huge repertoire of songs. All he knew were holiday classics, which he was forced to sing at the inn during festivals. He was still pretty shamed at his first attempt at singing, but decided to try again when Tess and her bugbear both fell to the ground, desperately grappling each other.

 _"Goblin bells, Goblin Bells."_

 _"A bug bear laid an egg…."_

 _"The entire mob should run back home…"_

 _"..and let the dragonslayers get away…"_

Even though Gerald's singing drove his allies to new levels of revulsion and anger, there were too many giants and goblins. Ceto managed to duck under the club of one of the giants, and then executed a low rising arc swing with his hammer, connecting solidly with the giant's groin, just as he had demonstrated earlier. The giant screeched in pain, clutching his now obliterated privates, before falling cross eyed to the ground. Ceto attempted to finish off his foe, but the other giant managed to smash him in the back, knocking the big half orc to the ground. Tess was able to win her deadly duel, plunging her dagger into the neck of the bugbear, before it bit off her face, but another bugbear joined the fray and kicked her in the chin as she attempted to scramble back on her feet.

As his allies fell, Gerald could sense the end. He had failed them. Tig, Ceto, Tess, and even Mina. If only he was a better figher. If only he was a better singer. If only…

Gerald's litany of self-doubt was broken as an arrow lodged itself into the neck of the bugbear that had kicked Tess in the face. The bugbear gurgled and grasped at his neck, as several more arrows rained down from the cliff above. It struck the remaining giant in the ankle forcing him to take a knee in pain. As the giant attempted to pull the arrow out, Gerald was shocked to see Tig alive. Covered in bits of wicker, but still alive. She jumped out of Ceto's smashed basket, landing in front of the kneeling giant. She then lobbed a red pine cone into its mouth as it gasped in pain. The giant stared at the gnome briefly in confusion before it's head exploded in a shower of brain, bone, and gore.

That was enough for the remaining goblins. The pack shrieked as it scattered into the woods, but not before a few more fell due to the deadly arrow fire from above.

"Are you okay?" shouted Armondo from above.

"Not really, but we'll live," shouted Tig in return.

"I would have gotten here sooner, but I didn't know you were in trouble," shouted Armonto. "These trees have a nasty way of muffling sound, but I heard that awful singing…and thought you were being attacked by off tune harpies or something. So I returned as quickly as I can."

Tig smiled, but then quickly return to the fallen Ceto, the big, really big, half orc laid gasping at his side as she examined him carefully. "Stay with me…stay with me," she pleaded as she began mixing her reagents once again. After mixing a large red elixir, she carefully poured it down his throat. Gerald wasn't sure how effective it was, but his gasping stopped as he appeared to fall in a deep sleep.

"Will he be alright?" asked Gerald.

Tig appeared to be on the verge of tears as he stroked the big half orc's hair gently. "Ja…ja…he'll be fine. He won't leave me like this…." She said as Ceto slowly shrank back to his regular beefy size. "Err…who's your new friend?"

Gerald looked puzzled at first, and then realized who she was referring to when Lady Tessa wrapped her arms around him. "My hero."

"Lady Tessa, this is Captain Tig, Ceto, and the archer above us is Armondo. They're dragon slayers."

"A pleasure," said Tess as she politely bowed. Afterwards she hugged Gerald again and even gave him a slight kiss on the cheek.

Tig eyed Gerald suspiciously as Gerald shrugged with a wide smile. "What can I say, I rescued the girl and saved the day."

"I do not deny your usefulness in the last fight," stated Tig as she switched her stare from Gerald to Tess and then back to Gerald again. ", but what about your Mina. Remember her?"

"Mina? Who's Mina?" asked Tess as both her and Tig glared at Gerald.

"Mina? Oh yeah, about her. Well that's complicated. You see…Mina and I…well …we really aren't…."

"We have to get moving," said Armondo as he rappelled down the cliff side on a rope. When he reached the bottom, he whipped it up violently, causing it to loosen and fall to the ground. "The dragon, it's coming. "

"Eh? How does it know we're here?" asked Tig in shock.

"I'm not sure, but after the remaining goblins scattered it soared out of the mines that Gerald pointed out. Maybe it was watching us through the eyes of his minions or maybe it has a crystal ball or something of that nature. Whatever the reason it'll be upon us in a few minutes."

Tig pursed her lips and immediately brew another potion enabling her to heft Ceto's much larger body on her tiny back. Armondo quickly looted for gear and supplies, while Tess stayed on guard for any returning goblins.

Gerald however breathed a sigh of relief. The subject of Mina had been successfully dodged by an act of nature. Never was he so glad to hear that a dragon was coming his direction.


	9. Chapter 9

"Over here," waved Armondo as he lead the group up the hill. Tig was carrying the much bigger Ceto, balanced impossibly on her back, Gerald helped her by guiding his feet so they wouldn't get snagged on any vegetation, while Lady Tessa was bringing up the rear with blade in hand in case there were any more skirmishers in the woods.

"So where are we going exactly that is defensible against a dragon?" asked Tig as she struggled up the slope carrying Ceto. While it looked ridiculous for the small gnome to shoulder most of his weight, she briefly mentioned something about an 'ant haul' potion which made no sense to Gerald, but he tapped a finger to his head as if he knew what it meant.

"There's a ravine with a hidden cave on the slope nearby. I only poked my head in the cave, but it's big enough for the lot of us. We can fight at the ravine and retreat into the cave if the dragon uses its breath on us," explained Armondo. "He'll have to stick his head into the cave if he really wants to roast up. I say we can give him his licks if he wants to push it that far."

"Hey. I found Lady Tess in a chasm nearby. Do you think they might be connected?" asked Gerald though no one really listened. All they were concentrating on now was getting out of the open before the dragon arrived. While Gerald had no experience in fighting a dragon, even he knew that a dragon's flames were bad news if you were let's say….fighting outside….in the middle of a forest. You didn't need to be a professional dragonslayer to know that.

After roughly five minutes, they reached the ravine that Armondo had mentioned. Actually they passed several ravines but this particular one was the widest, and sure enough at the back of it there was a cave obscured by a large boulder. Gerald thought the difficult terrain would proved difficult to move Ceto through, even with Tig's ant power, but remarkably the big half orc struggled to his feet and made the rest of the journey himself, despite the gnome's protest.

"Nein! Stay still! You'll tear open your wounds!" pleaded Tig, her voice choking back tears.

"I'm alright," grunted Ceto in his own stoic fashion.

Gerald didn't care if they threw him in, or if he fell in by his own power. He was just glad everyone was safely in the cave as the dragon soared overhead. While Armondo guarded the ravine with his bow, the rest huddled in the cave behind the boulder. It wasn't enough to stop the dragon if it really wanted to root them out, but it would prevent them from being roasted alive from a distance at least.

Gerald also noticed that Armondo had replaced his regular arrows with a black oversized metal shaft at the ready. It looked too heavy to actually shoot, but the half orc seemed to handle it easily. While Gerald didn't know a thing about dragons or archery for that matter, that arrow just screamed dragonslaying to him.

"Well…it looks like we finally got our dragon," smirked Armondo with his black arrow nocked. "Though I would have preferred it if it hadn't softened us up with his minions first, that's just bad sport."

"PRINCE AARON!" shouted the dragon. "YOU CAN NOT HIDE! I CAN SMELL YOUR COWARDICE!"

At first Gerald was confused, there was no Prince amongst them. Then he checked his trousers and breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't him that was emitting a cowardice smell.

"Acht! Prince Aaron? What's he talking about?" asked Tig. Everyone in the cave shrugged.

"SIR RIDLEY AND LADY TESSA ARE MY PRISONERS….SADLY SIR BEAUREGARD DID NOT MAKE IT!"

"No…not Beau..not him," cried Tess.

"Eh? I thought Lady TESSA was with us?" asked Armondo. The group stared at Tess, who simply weeped as she shrank a bit back into the cave.

"DO YOU NOT WANT TO SAVE THE REST OF YOUR …SILVER GUARD? DO YOU NOT WANT TO SAVE YOUR WOMAN? " screeched the dragon overhead.

"What's he talking about?" Tig asked Tess. "Why does he think you're the prince? "

"I'm more concerned of why is he not attacking?" asked Armondo coolly. "This ravine is narrow, but not that narrow, and a dragon that big could easily sling this boulder out of the way, or worse yet jam it in and attempt to suffocate us. I have this black arrow with his name on it, but I'm not going to use it from this distance. I have to make this shot count and even then I'm not sure its powerful enough to kill that beast outright."

"Maybe he doesn't want to hurt the 'Prince' who he thinks is with us," shrugged Gerald as he eyed Tess suspiciously.

"SURRENDER YOURSELF TO ME AT THE OLD TOWER AT SUNRISE, AND I WILL RELEASE YOUR REMAINING COMPANIONS! FAIL TO ARRIVE AT …THEIR…PERIL!" threatened the dragon before it flew away.

Armondo raised an eyebrow as the dragon left. "Well…that went better than expected. I was sure he was going to attack us and take what he wanted."

"Maybe he was scared. We did kill all his minions," suggested Tess.

"Hardly," snorted Armondo. "While I was scouting at the top of the hill, I saw his army pouring out the mines. He has another five hundred strong, and they're on the march to Daggerhall. "

"Eh? That's much more than a dragon's normal contingent of guards. Even the blue we slew in Ylarrum didn't command that many dervishes," puzzled Tig.

"Maybe he's not here to make a lair. Maybe he's here to conqueror this land?" shrugged Armondo. "It's not a bad idea if you're a dragon actually. You fly around to scare the local populace, and since you are a dragon the villagers won't summon the army, because they have half a mind. An army would be dead meat if it met a dragon in the open field. So the townsfolk send knights or dragonslayers or…ugh…adventurers…to dispatch the beast, allowing you time to move in your own army under their noses. When you do attack, the defenders won't have enough men to stop you. This land might not have any ruins, vast stores of treasures, or any artifacts to be plundered, but the land itself is worthwhile for its natural resources."

Tig shook her head. "Nein. It still doesn't make sense. Why get an army though? A dragon could simply attack the town directly and take it over. You saw the size of that thing, it could destroy Daggerhall in a night of flames."

"Aye, the town's militia only number in the twenty with another twenty they can call upon as reserves. When the dragon arrived they reinforced their meager defenses by adding extra rain barrels around the town and supplying more bows to the militia, but they didn't increase the militia's number, for that would have been folly," said Tess confirming Gerald's thoughts about armies fighting a dragon. "Even with their motte and bailey, they would not be able to withstand the horde you described without reinforcements for long, and certainly would not be able to stand up to them if they had a dragon at their lead."

"This seems to be a lot of effort to conqueror a small border town. I mean who even wants it? It doesn't connect to anywhere save the rest of Westholding and the Dool lands up north. If this dragon wanted to claim a kingdom, he should have done this little scheme on Old Brighton or Cloverworth. Those two towns we passed coming here. They seemed much more worthy to conqueror, and their defenses aren't that much better than here," shrugged Tig.

Gerald gulped hard at the casual way they were describing the death of his town. While it was simply a hovel of shacks to these people, it was still his home. Fat Inga, shrewd Sanngror, and even annoying Wilton were all part of his family, and even though he didn't particularly like any of them, he would not want to see them come to harm.

"Maybe our dragon isn't what it seems," said Armondo. "Maybe its not as powerful as it looks. I did not feel the terrible presence of a dragon 'aura' but it wasn't technically attacking us, so maybe it didn't to choose to radiate it. Maybe its a lot smaller, and uses its magic to make itself more formidable. Like your enlarge spell. That would explain why it would use an army and didn't attack the town directly. I mean, it hasn't attacked anyone that was a challenge really except for the Knights. Even then it supported its attacks with giants and goblins. "

"Eh?" asked Tig. She considered his statement and after some thought she seemed to agree with his idea and pulled out a small box from her satchel. She stared at the box nervously before flipping its lid, and seemed relieved when the strange jagged stone inside still glowed. "Well the dragonstone says that there's a dragon nearby, and a fairly powerful one as well. So there goes that theory."

"What is that?" asked Tess in surprise. "I've never seen such a thing."

"It glows when there is a dragon roughly a mile from here," said Gerald knowingly , even though he only just seen it a few hours ago. "It also indicates the relative power of the beast as well."

"Colour and species as well, " added Tig. "But…I'm not skilled enough to read everything it says. From what I've learned, the dragon nearby appears to be red….but I'm getting strange readings on its thoughts and alignment. It appears to be in a state of mental...depression and anxiety. Though I'm not 100% sure."

"Perhaps the creature is insane," said Armondo. "He's not like a normal dragon, did you notice he didn't declare himself. Most do that as a point of pride to spread their fame and strike fear into their enemies. Even the little ones do that, which I find quite amusing. Also , you heard him go on and on about a Prince. Well…I'm pretty sure we don't have a Prince. Unless Gerald is one in disguise."

Everyone chuckled at that, but Gerald had another option in mind.

While Tess was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen up close, the dragon's statement had started firing questions in his small bard brain. Especially since he had the same conversation with Mina earlier. Lady Tessa certainly fit the bill of a woman knight with her ample feminine physique, her gentle voice, and even her fair soft skin. Being a bard, Gerald knew the full extent that a proper disguise could make. Skin can be faked with proper foundation and makeup, eyelashes and full lips were easy to do, hair could be a product of a stylist or even a wig. Even something as ample breasts and wide swinging hips could be replicated by two rolled up stockings, a tight corset, and some padding on the butt. While Tessa definitely looked and felt like a woman when she was kissing and hugging him, he had to admit he hadn't seen her underneath the armor. But despite his crazy thoughts about Tess crossdressing, and then the now uncomfortable memory of the hugs and kisses in the cave, he also recalled something that Mina said…..

"Err….are you a man? And if not…are you the Princess?" Gerald asked Tessa tentatively. Everyone seemed surprise that he would pose such questions, even himself.

"Acht! Is she a man? Are you crazy?" asked Tig. "I mean look at her. I'd be jealous if I was a human. It's pretty evident she's a woman."

"It sounds crazy," interrupted Armondo. "But until a few months ago, I could have sworn to be able to tell the difference between a man and a woman. That is until I met that ...errr...lady boy in the that dance hall in Lower Lueders. Really made me think twice about ...things."

"Eh… what?" replied Tess, clearly shaken from the question and comments about her sexuality.

Ceto looked at Tessa then Gerald and back to Tessa, giving her a good hard look. "I think you need glasses."

"I'm just saying that if a dragon was after me, I might disguise myself as a woman too. However, even more crazy that that, Mina had this crazy theory. Well not really a theory, I think she was joking actually. Well anyways, she said she wanted to meet the Prince, but was afraid he'd turn out to be a woman. Her theory went that because the king owed the mad wizard Zerd a princess, so he would disguise his children as boys to avoid that. If that was true, it wouldn't be too hard of a stretch that he would hire a guy to pose as the prince, while the real prince or princess would be nearby. It's not the first time a member of the royalty had a body double, but I doubt it's ever been to this extreme before. I know it's kind of nuts, and I really didn't give it a second thought when I first heard it but …well….that dragon seemed pretty convinced that the prince was amongst us."

"I…I…that's ridiculous…." said Tess.

"You think that anyone could keep up a charade like that for what ...thirty years? Or however long you humans reach maturity? " questioned Tig. "You'd think someone would talk."

"Wouldn't a wizard , well you know…use magic to determine if the King lied to him or something. That's what they do right?" asked Armondo.

Tig shook her head. "Nein. In most cases I would say Ja, but I've heard of this Zerd. He's a specialist, an evoker. He is forbidden from using divination magic. Though that wouldn't explain why he couldn't just hire someone else to cast that spell. However…..now that I think of it, clerics and wizards in this part of the woods are pretty rare…..and someone like Zerd might be too proud to ask for help."

"I don't believe I'm hearing this," protested Tess. "I'm not the Prince or Princess. I'm Tessa. I'm….."

Ceto interrupted her by walking directly next to Tess. The wounded but still heavily muscled half orc cut an imposing figure as he craned his neck down a mere inch from Tess's face. The knight recoiled, suppressing an urge to scream as the big half orc simply took a big whiff of her face, and then lowered his head and breathed in the aroma of her chest. Satisfied he took a step back and grunted. "She's not a Prince, and she's not a man."

Tess was shocked at his bold advance and though he hadn't actually touched her, his violation of her personal space." Are you happy now! Or does everyone else want a smell" she demanded as she stormed off into a corner of the cave and sulked.

Gerald actually wouldn't mind, but he wisely stayed silent.

Tig folded her arms, and seemed upset at the big half orc. Ceto simply picked up the gnome and playfully sniffed her as well. She seemed defiant at first, but soon lost her composure and hugged his head. "I'm glad you're all right," Tig said as they both kissed.

Not a kiss like a mother would give her child, or even an awkward brother sister kiss, but full mouth on mouth and probably tongue on tongue. In fact, since Ceto was so much bigger than Tig, Gerald half expected him to bite her head off as they locked lips.

Gerald looked at the pair and his mind started to click. "Wait a sec…..Tig…Ceto….how does that even work? Isn't he like way too big…wouldn't she….? "

Armondo simply shook his head. "They hug and kiss, but she also has an enlarge spell if she needs it…remember?" and ended Gerald's questions.

After their embrace, Tig composed herself and confronted the group. "Okay, without actually knowing how powerful the dragon is, we'll just assume we were fortunate that the dragon did not attack. We're lucky that he thinks the Prince is with us while Ceto says he is clearly not. If they don't have the Prince, I'm guessing that he escaped and maybe he made his way back to town, but we can't assume that. He might have stumbled around in the dark and fallen into a chasm, like this one or the one Tess and Gerald found. This is too much for us to handle, but we must warn Daggerhall and the kingdom of Westholding in general that they have a small army at their door steps. We'll rest for an hour, lick our wounds, before we strike for the town before that army does. An army that size doesn't move that fast. Also the dragon seemed hung up on meeting at this old tower, wherever that is, in the morning to do an exchange. I doubt he will attack without his army, so we have that going for us. As long as we reach the town before sunrise we should have sufficient time to muster up its defenses. "

"Can't you simply warn them magically?" asked Tess. "I know several important people that you can alert if you have that type of magic."

Tig shook her head. "Sadly , I do not have the formulae for a messenger extract. I'm just a humble alchemist."

Armondo snorted. "She means, she focuses on abilities that that lets her destroy things rather than master utility magic."

Tig glared at the stout orc , but eventually smiled slyly at his appraisal.

"Wait. What about Mina, and the two hostages the dragon has," protested Gerald. "Won't the dragon execute them if no one shows up at the tower. Come to think of it, do you think Mina is the one the dragon is confusing for Lady Tess. She's not exactly a knight, and she is kind of short, but a dragon wouldn't know one human woman from another…would it?"

"Actually a dragon's ability to differentiate humanoids is quite acute. Often it just memorizes people by their scent. However, without a baseline of the real Tessa," explained Armondo as he nodded at Tess. "It would be logical to assume that he could your Mina with the Lady knight here."

Gerald's heart dropped. While before he simply assumed Mina was in danger, now there existed a very possibility that not only was she in danger, but she was about to be dragon food in a few hours. He didn't know Mina, but she had been a bit amusing, and she was also kind to him. After all, out of everyone in the village she chose him to guide her to the mines. A terrible decision in the end, but one that Gerald felt responsible for.

"We have to do something, we can't let those people die in the tower."

"What do you want us to do Gerald? The dragon wants the Prince. We don't have a Prince. If we show up without one, he's going to not only kill us but his hostages as well. And even if we have the Prince, I do not think it wise to trade the kingdom's heir and possibly the only one that can rally the kingdom's forces to fight this horde to a dragon," sighed Tig.

"Can't we try to use stealth or something to rescue them? You must have an invisibility potion formulae right?"

Tig frowned and confronted Gerald with sad eyes. She even took off her leather skull cap and placed it over her heart. "Armondo is more of a scout than a rogue. Asking him to sneak past a dragon is beyond his abilities. And while I could create an invisibility extract, a dragon can see through it easily. I'm sorry Gerald, I know Mina means a lot to you, but she's beyond our help now. All we can do is warn the town and prevent more people from dying."

"As a paladin of the Silver Guard, I reluctantly agree," said Lady Tessa.

Armondo grunted in approval, while Ceto barely remained conscious.

Normally Gerald would quickly jump on the agree band wagon, valuing his life over a strangers, but …but it just seemed wrong to him. He closed his eyes and saw the girl with the short dark hair, the round face, and the big saucer eyes, and thought he would've liked to have known her more, or at least to know that she hadn't die because he wanted to make a few gold from some foolish sorceress girl with a Prince fetish.

Reluctantly he sighed and bobbed his head.

"Why does that big lizard want a Prince anyways? I thought they go for Princesses..." grumbled Gerald.

"Well, for all we know it is a female dragon, though from his screeching earlier it didn't sound like it. Also, dragons are attracted to wealth and well...treasure. They are creatures that are composed from magic as much as they are the physical. It's hard to explain but the need for 'treasure' or some form of 'wealth' is linked to them both physically and psychologically. To sleep on, to display, to lounge around on...it varies with each dragon. As long as something is valuable a dragon craves it. Be it a coin or sweater collection, antiques, or the more traditional gold and jewels. I've even heard of a dragon that would kidnap Prince and Princes and lock them in a room, just so he can say they belonged to him. To revel in the fact that he had the most valuable 'things' in the land," explained Tig.

"That sounds rather...petty and shallow,"commented Gerald.

"Well to anyone but a dragon it is, but I've only scratched the most extreme examples. Often a dragon just sits on enough for his physical well being, and some even donate a fair share. Remember when I was telling you about alternate forms a dragon can take, well some even disguise themselves as humans simply to engage in mercantile activities and use their business acumen. A creature that can live for a thousand year can sit on its investments longer than you or I and can amass mind boggling sums of wealth. "

"So...what happens when they don't find treasure?" asked Gerald.

"Most wither or die. Some just grow bitter and erratic. Which is a good point. Maybe this dragon does not have sufficient treasure which is why it's engaging in such an unpredictable manner. Stealing gold and gaining tribute is one thing, running a town is quite another. It's not something a dragon is attracted to."

Gerald shrugged. All this knowledge about dragons is fine but it won't save Mina.

"Okay then, I guess our course of action is set. We'll wait here an hour and then we go warn the town," said Tig.

Gerald reluctantly agreed.

As they waited. Ceto took some much needed rest, while Tig simply laid out a mat on the ground and fell into a meditative trance. Gerald assumed she was regaining her extract power or something arcaney like that. Armondo got restless and after making sure the area was secure, he began scouting out a trail. Gerald was still beside himself with his agreement to abandon Mina, and couldn't help but pace around the cave.

"Gerald," said Tess, softly touching his arm. "Can we talk?"

Gerald smiled. He thought his outlandish accusations earlier had spoiled any chance he had with this beautiful knight, but from her soft stare and smile he guessed he might have underestimated his own charm.

"Sure. What can I do for you …..m'lady," he said, attempting to be suave. He knew he failed immediately as soon as he opened his mouth, but it did not seem to deter Tess. She simply pressed up closer towards him. She was a bit odd, flipping from vulnerable, to battle harden, and now into romantic. He knew to stay away from crazy women like her, but he had never been with a woman who was so…so …beautiful, desirable, irresistible.

"I…I'm afraid Gerald," she said her breath mingling with his. "This might be our last night alive. And …I don't want to spend it …alone. The gnome and the half orc might be an odd couple….but I'm jealous of what they have….."

"Err…. What are you saying…"

"No…not here….somewhere a bit more private….." she said as she slipped towards the cave entrance. Gerald was about to protest, saying it was too dangerous to go into the woods unless you were a squat two hundred pound half orc with a great bow, that the dragon might have goblin or bugbear scouts or something of that nature, but she simply kissed him lightly on the lips and winked at him before she left the cave.

Gerald was dumb and often missed cues and hints from the fairer sex, but he wasn't that dumb. He was mesmerized by her scent and taste of Lilacs. He took a glance at Ceto and Tig, and when he saw they were safely sleeping or meditating, he tip toed out of the cave after Tess. His mind was torn between Mina being roasted somewhere soon, to that of Tess's nymph like body that he couldn't believe he suspected to be a man's a little while earlier.

While Gerald expected them to simply kiss a little, or even grope a bit behind a tree, he was shocked and delighted to find Tess had already stripped her armor off, revealing a very shapely woman wearing a light cotton surcoat that barely hid her flawless body. No corset, rolled up stockings or hip padding here. While some armor makers designed their suits to accentuate one's physical attributes, like having iron abs, a big cod piece, or in her case, silver metal breasts, Gerald was pleasantly surprised to find her more attractive without her armor than with.

Tess smiled and easily shed the last of her armor. While Gerald wasn't a knight, he was a bit confused at how quickly she took off her armor. He was sure he saw some squires aid a warrior last year with his armor and it took them like five minutes to put it on for him. He wondered if taking off armor was a lot quicker, or maybe it was more of that magic.

"Turn around," she said and Gerald complied, undoing the buttons of his shirt. He could feel her behind him, stroking his hair, her breath dancing on his ears.

"I'm sorry, but I need a Prince," she said. Gerald puzzled at that statement, before a large heavy blow struck him in the head and all went black.


	10. Chapter 10

Gerald tried to groan but found something was jammed inside his mouth. He couldn't see either, even though he opened his eyes. All he could do was make pitiful murmuring sounds in the darkness.

 _What happened?_ He recalled being alone with Lady Tess, and she was starting to get undressed.

 _Oh no….did I fail to perform…..was the shame of my inadequacies, especially in the face of an alluring woman like Tess too much for my mind to handle? Or maybe … I did do my duty…but could only maintain it ….briefly….before I blacked out._

Gerald's questions swirled through his mind. He attempted to stand up but found he couldn't. While he couldn't exactly see, he felt his arms were tightly lashed together behind his back, while his legs were tied at the knees and ankles.

 _Wait….maybe it just got really crazy last night. Tess is a loony girl with her mood swings. Maybe things just got a little wild. Yeah…I bet Tess enjoys and likes to give out pain. She is a paladin after all, that's a really painful profession with all the monster fighting and everything. It wouldn't surprise me if she likes a little fighting in the sack as well. Wait….no….that's not what happened….I was hit in the head!_

Panic struck.

 _I'm not in some strange paladin love shackles, I've been captured by goblins._

The realization sent Gerald in a frenzy as he thrashed about wildly. It didn't feel like he was on the ground, but felt he was suspended somehow. His sudden burst after squirming seemed to have the desired effect and he felt himself shake free from whatever was suspending him as he crashed painfully on the ground.

Gerald groaned into what he suspected as his gag.

"Oh, you're up," said the unmistakable voice of Lady Tessa. Or at least he hoped it was unmistakable. He wasn't good at singing but he had a good ear. He hoped the Paladin had somehow decided to make him her love slave rather than having been caught by goblins, and used as food or manual labour in their pits.

"Lmm Mmm Gm"

Silence….and then to his surprise his blindfold was removed.

Gerald found himself on the forest floor, and to his shock he was wearing a full suit of silver armor. He thought it would feel heavy, but it felt light, and even more surprising was that it was adorned with Griffins and roses, the kingdom's symbols. To his relief, Tess was standing before him and not some angry goblin jailer, though she looked odd since she was dressed only in her for hugging surcoat she was wearing earlier and what looked like his own patchwork sweater over that. There was no sign of Tig, Ceto, or Armondo.

"I'm so sorry….." apologized Tess. Gerald stared at her, and saw she wasn't bragging or being sarcastic, she seemed truly sorry for this turn of events. "You rescued me from the chasm, and probably saved me from the bugbears,…..and this is how I repay you. Shameful."

"Emm? Whmm gmmmm om? Whmm Imm tmmm um?"

Tess reached for Gerald's mouth. "I will undo your gag, but if you shout or scream, I will knock you out again. Understand?" she asked while patting her dagger. Though it didn't seem special, Gerald noticed a particularly big pommel on it, and guessed that was how it dispatched him the first time. Not that she would require any special weapons to do so, she probably could have done so with a big branch or even a rock.

Gerald nodded under the threat of the dagger's pommel and Tess first undid the gag as promised.

"I don't understand what's going on. Why am I your prisoner?"

Tess sighed. "The dragon needs a Prince, so I am giving him a Prince."

"But why? He doesn't even have the Prince. Or..or are you trading me for that other person…Sir Riddle."

"Ridley," corrected Tess. "And…and…its complicated."

Gerald couldn't believe his ears. He was going to be sacrificed to a dragon by some crazy woman, because it was…complicated.

"I'm sorry for all this, I just wanted to let you know it's nothing personal. Under other circumstances, it might have been different between us. We are not that different. We're cut from the same common stock," she said as she began to stuff the gag back into his mouth and secure it.

"Wait..wait….If I'm going to be offered to the dragon. I deserve to know why. Grant a dying man his last wish…" pleaded Gerald as what looked like a rolled up piece of saliva covered cloth was jammed into his mouth. He widened his eyes and made a pathetic mewling noise though he probably would have done anything at this point to delay the inevitable, but this seemed most appropriate given his dire situation.

Tess hesitated and stared at his eyes. Gerald saw his chance and attempted to make his eyes wider. The Lady Knight and Bard stared for a few seconds before she relented and removed the gag again.

"Thank you, thank you," said Gerald as he worked on a way to get her to release him. "If you explain to me why you are turning me over to the dragon, maybe I'll understand my fate better."

Tess nodded and sat next to Gerald. "My story…I am not Lady Tessa of Westholding. Well…I am and I'm not. I'm not a noble born woman as everyone thinks I am. I'm simply Tess of Goldcrown, daughter of Lawrence the baker."

Gerald had heard of Goldcrown, a small mountain region to the south. It was famed for its mountain mead, confections, and its buxom beauties…that is until goblins raided it years ago.

"My town was attacked two decades past in the goblin uprising. The Silver Guard came and paid the goblins bloody vengeance, but it was too late for my family. The goblins had killed them, everyone. Father, mother, aunts, uncles, cousins...everyone I held dear was slain. In the aftermath Sir Beauregard took me in as a servant to his household. I was thankful for him, for the life he spared me and the opportunities that he gave me, but it wasn't until I was ten that life truly opened its doors for me."

"Sir Beauregard brought a boy to his manor to train underneath him, and even though I was just a maid then we got along famously. Young Aaron. We were the same age and we became best of friends, and Sir Beauregard saw this. He even allowed me to practice with Aaron in the arts of knighthood. Swordsmanship, equestrian, archery, even etiquette were introduced to me."

"Despite my eagerness to excel as a knight, I was not the most able student. I was an above average warrior at best. Despite this, Aaron insisted that I joined him, when we moved to falconry, heavy armor training, two handed weapons, sword and board, and other more serious combat training. "

"It wasn't until we were fourteen, that I noticed something wasn't right. I always assumed Aaron bathed and slept separately because he was a Prince and deserved better, but at that point he …I discovered the truth…"

Gerald brighten up even though he was still bound. "He was a girl! I knew it! I knew it! Err…nevermind me…continue with your story…"

"Aye…he was actually the Princess Aaron, and you were correct. King Gustav had concealed the birth of his daughter from the wizard Zerd. He cheated the wizard from his prize and only the Silver Guard and myself were privy to that information."

"While I had discovered his..her secret…Sir Beauregard trusted me. I was a daughter to him and he was a father to me. Even when the Prince was coming of age, and people were questioning his lack of interest in girls, Beauregard trusted me. Though I am not skilled enough to be a member of the Silver Guard on martial skill alone, I was recruited to be used as a ruse to fool the public. I was pretty enough I guess, and skilled enough with the blade that it wasn't too hard to fool the masses in thinking a beautiful paladin caught Sir Aaron's eye and was now the newest member of the Silver Guard. I was the window dressing to distract and confuse the public."

"As you probably have guessed, I am not even a paladin. Sir Frederick summoned his mount and allowed me to ride it to continue the deception. I am not sure how that fits into his paladin code, but I guess the Prince's safety trumps the part about being honest. "

"Err…" interrupted Gerald. "This couldn't last forever could it? Someone was going to find out, and if that happens that Zerd guy would find out."

Tess sighed. "Aye. King Gustav wasn't known as the Mad King for nothing. His plans were not the best laid out. His initial plan was that he hoped the wizard would simply die of old age, since he was already an old man when he struck the bargain, but…well you know how wizards are, they find ways to beat the laws of nature. While scant news of Zerd is heard in the kingdom, he is said to be still alive somewhere...waiting for his Princess."

Gerald wasn't sure who was in the right here. The mad wizard that made a ridiculous demand and was being cheated by the King. Or the mad King that had also agreed to the bargain in the first place and was saving his daughter from the lecherous clutches of some ancient finger waggler. In his opinion there was no right or wrong side, but if made to choose he would pick the King. While both were considered mad, the King's decisions seemed less selfish in motivation than the wizard's.

"I suppose our lie would have been revealed, but until that time we did a lot of good in the Kingdom and beyond. Tutored by Sir Frederick and Sir Beau, the Prince blossomed into a real hero. While I could barely defeat a bugbear by myself, I've seen the Prince battle a dozen of the creatures and come out victorious. We rode from one end to the kingdom to another and had even battled a Green dragon previously at the Willowwhisper woods."

Gerald thought it odd that Tess was still referring Princess Aaron as Prince Aaron, but he guessed that habits die hard. When you lived a lie all your life, it wouldn't be easy to simply drop it.

"We didn't think this mission would be any different, but ….we were so wrong. Besides the dragon, we were assaulted by poison mist, bolts of lightning, and even a horde of giants, and goblins to finish us off. Sir Frederick and Prince Aaron had enchanted us against flames, but they circumvented our defenses with other elemental attacks. It was only Sir Markham's quick thinking that prevented all of us from being captured. Sir Frederick gave his life so that we could escape, but even that wasn't enough to prevent everyone else from dying."

Gerald wanted to hug her, or at least comfort her with a pat on the back, but the bindings to his limb remained tight. He attempted to wiggle and squeeze his way out of them, but Tess knew her knots well.

"While I should be warning the kingdom with Tig and her motley crew, the Silver Guard was not made for the defense of Westholding, the Silver Guard was made to protect the Prince. I may not be the most skilled or even the bravest of my order, but I wasn't chosen merely for my looks. I was chosen for my loyalty, first and foremost. If there is any chance I can rescue the Prince, I must take it. Even if that means sacrificing my self, or sacrificing those around me."

Gerald had ceased his useless struggles and listened to Tessa intently. He did not like the way this was sounding.

"I assume that when the dragon captured Prince Aaron it discovered his true nature and guessed that he was me, since I am the only woman in the Order. I must take advantage of that, and offer up a 'Prince' in return for the real Prince. The exchange at the tower might be a trap, or the Prince might already be dead, but I'm willing to take that risk."

"err…actually I'm the one taking the risk," said Gerald in a small voice.

"I understand this, and if we succeed in saving the Prince, I'll find the finest bards in the kingdom to sing of your heroism," she said as she lowered her head to his and kissed him gently on the head. He breathed in her lilac scent, probably for the last time. As he looked at her, he thought she was so beautiful, so tragic...and that he was so dead. She then returned the gag in its place, and tied it off around his head, before hefting him over his shoulder. Despite her slim frame, she was surprisingly strong. Though she struggled with his weight, she did manage to reach the old tower after about ten more minutes of hiking and stumbling through the dark woods.

Gerald on the other hand was stunned into silence. It wasn't that he was going to be given over to a dragon, it was because she belittled his skill as a bard. Finest bards in the land? He was the finest bard in the land, how was she going to get a dead man to write his own songs. The slight irritated him to no end, but he was powerless to do anything but fume even as she tossed him before the tower.

"Here he is! Prince Aaron as promised. The coward did not want to face you to save his own men, so I had to …persuade... him to act heroically," shouted Tess. Her demure voice was gone and she was back to her strong warrior voice. Gerald marveled at how easily she shifted her personality, she would have made a great actor if she wasn't a crazy betraying bitch.

A great dragon seemed to appear out of nowhere and balanced itself atop the crumbling tower. Gerald wasn't sure if the structure could hold the beast's weight, but then he wasn't sure how much the dragon weighed anyways. Given that it could fly, it might not weight that much compared to its body size. Regardless of the physics of it, a small goblin wearing furs with a gnarled staff hobbled its way towards Tess and her prisoner from the base of the tower. GREEN EYES!

The goblin shaman reached Tess and jabbed Gerald a few times. It seemed dubious at first, but grinned when he saw the heraldry of the silver armor. While Gerald hadn't notice till now, the goblin also examined his hands and jabbed its grubby hands at rings that he hadn't worn before, and examined his neck and seemed pleased at amulets he did not recall donning.

"Him only hooman man before….dress like peasant…to hide…..coward…." croaked Greeneyes.

The dragon seemed satisfied and flapped its wings."I am a man of my word," screeched the dragon. "Take your friends and go. I will meet you on the battlefield soon enough."

A knight with battered and tarnished armor appeared, carrying another knight in his arms. He hobbled towards Tess. From Gerald's angle the other unconscious knight looked like the Prince he was familiar with, a youthful lad with short hair and tuffs of beard and side burns, but as they got closer he saw her breast plate had been ripped off, revealing a small but fine pair of breasts.

"Sir..Sir Beauregard didn't make it," said the beaten man, who he assumed was Sir Ridley,as he lowered his head.

"I ..I know…." Said Tess as he helped the man carry the woman away.

It was all very touching, and Gerald might have shed a tear except the shadows around him began to move.

"Hmm tmm Prmmmm. Imm nmm tmm Prmmmmm. Hmm tmm Prmmmm," protested Gerald as a bugbear stepped out of the shadows and grabbed him with his large furry hands.


	11. Chapter 11

Gerald twisted in his bonds as the bugbears dragged him to the tower.

"Im nom thm princm! Im nom thm princm! ", he protested in vain. his gag was loosened slightly from his struggles but he was still most intelligible.

A particularly thin bugbear with a big bald patch on his head grew tired of Gerald's struggles and punched him in the gut. To Gerald's surprise it didn't hurt that much. Given how flexible his armour was and how it miraculously appeared out of nowhere, Gerald had thought it was an illusion, but it clearly had some real physical ablative properties as well.

"Now, now," screeched the dragon overhead. "You do not want to hurt my bride. That's for me to do."

"Yark, Yark, Yark," laughed the bugbears.

Gerald stopped as he let the statement sink in. His bride?

Gerald's struggles renewed as the bugbears laughed. The bard managed to kick one of them with a sideblow, but all that did was to make the bugbears secure him some more. In the end he had one grab him by the head, while two others grabbed him by the torso and legs.

"Bree yark!" threatened the biggest one with a chuckle as they hauled him up into the tower.

Gerald's mind was in a panic. Did the dragon say he was going to be his bride? Or did he say tide or maybe even ride or how about guide. Yeah, maybe the dragon needed a guide to lead him to the royal treasure. Nevermind that it didn't made sense, but being a dragon's bride seemed too terrible to suffer. Being sacrificed by Tessa to the dragon was one thing, at least it felt like a noble death for the good of the kingdom, but being a bride to a dragon….was just too unthinkable. Like how was that going to be done? Was the dragon going to throw him on the cold floor and sodomize him? Crush him with his ten thousand pound body. Gerald's butt squeezed tightly together at that horrible thought. Was it some form of ultimate punishment one can inflict on his enemy? The ultimate humiliation one can bring on a conquered people? A sign of dominance? To ass rape their much smaller leader?

Gerald began to writhe vigorously again at the thought, but the lead bugbear simply grabbed him by the throat. "Stop yer squirming, or me choke, you Yark?" it threatened as his fingers clenched down on his throat.

Gerald coughed in his gag, but did as he was told. If escape was possible he would have to bide his time. Or perhaps he could kill himself to deny the dragon the pleasure of his grim fate.

Gerald didn't have much time to think about his future when he reached his destination, a barred room at the top of the tower. While the ruined tower wasn't that tall, perhaps four stories, Gerald somehow thought it might be enchanted so that there was more room on the inside than the outside. Sadly that was not the case, it was simply an old guard tower, with a large room a top. The entire area was actually mundane enough save that it was in better repair than a tower that looked so decrepit on the outside.

As they reached the door, the one holding Gerald's legs released him as the other's propped him up. They undid his binds and his gag, before opening the door and pushing him in .

Gerald wasn't sure what to expect, a cold attic, more shackles, a dragon's nest? Instead he found a large bed with a billowing white garment lying of it, a simple table with some bread, wine, and cheese, and a hearth with a cozy fire.

"Ahh, my dear Prince," said a screeching voice from the other side of the now barred door. Gerald looked and saw a slot had opened, revealing a wizened old man with age spots all over his face. He had a thin white beard, and was waving a hand adorned with unnaturally long yellow fingernails. What was most disconcerting was that the man possessed the same screeching voice as the dragon that had taunted him in the forest and outside the tower. He remembered Tig talking about dragons and their alternate forms and was wondering if this crazy geezer could actually be the dragon outside?

"I'm not the Prince!" pleaded Gerald. "Please this has all been a big mistake."

The old man grinned, exposing his jack o lantern style teeth.

"What do you want! You will face the wrath of Prince Aaron and all the fury of Westholding if I am not immediately released! " demanded Gerald imperiously as he switched tactics. Though he was hardly a Prince, the silver armor and his lack of options forced him to try to bluff his way out. He already tried denying he was the Prince, but that didn't work, now he would try intimidation. He didn't think this would work either, but it might provide him with some information to make sense of this madness.

"Hee..hee…I want what is owed to me. I want you to take off your armor, put on the dress, and then we'll get married…hee…he…."

Gerald blanched at the thought. Sex with a giant dragon that would crush me, or sex with a crazy old man with even crazier long fingernails. Neither option sounded particularly pleasant. And it wasn't like he could resist his advances either. Old of those bugbears outside was probably enough to force him into the dress, and he wasn't even going to try to fight a dragon, old man form or not. Gerald glanced around the room and his eyes fell on the fire. He could simply put on the dress and throw himself into the fire place. That would probably be extremely painful, but a lot less humiliating than the other option.

"No!" barked a short gruff voice. "No Princess…until town is Dool's. That what Dool say. I obey Dool. Deal was Princess for town! "

While Gerald didn't recognize the voice, nor could he see who was saying it, he thought it sounded like Greeneyes, the goblin shaman that he had run into in the forest and outside the tower.

"I just want a little taste first," cackled the old man who appeared to be looking down at something.

"No town, no deal!" barked the goblin voice again. "Deal with Dool if you break your word."

" Oh alright," sighed the old man. "I'll save my Princess for later. I've waited twenty years I can wait a day more."

"Err guys…I'm a guy, not a girl," corrected Gerald. "I'm Prince Aaron, not Princess Arron. Actually I'm not even an Aaron or nobility, but the bottom line is I'm a man."

"Nor for long," cackled Greeneyes as his voice trailed off.

"Things will change my sweet," screeched the old man before he left as well.

Gerald gulped hard as he considered their threat. Castration? He was going to get castrated? This was getting worse and worse. Why go to all the trouble to marry the Prince, if you are simply going to make him a eunuch by cutting his balls off. He wanted to tell them they had the real Princess and could have saved themselves the trouble, but they had already gone.

Gerald peaked out the slot on the door and could only see shadows. He wasn't convinced he was alone though, since those bugbears seemed to have an affinity of popping in and out of them, and he doubt they would leave the Prince unguarded.

He wasn't sure how long it would take for them to conqueror the 'town', which he assumed was Daggerhall, the old man said a day but he gave himself a few hours at least. With few options left to him, he simply sat at the table and ate his bread and cheese and drank his wine.

"Psssstt…."

Gerald stopped and looked about. He couldn't see anything in the room that wasn't there before.

"Pssssstt…over here…"

Gerald glanced about and saw nothing unusual except a small glowing ball near the barred window. He stared at it and noticed small flames flickering from the ball. It somehow looked familiar.

"Gerard…..over here!"

"Gerard? I'm Gerald," he said as he made his way to the window. The glowing ball bobbed a bit before it darted down out of sight. Gerald wasn't sure what was going on but looked down the window anyways.

"Mina! Is that you?" he gasped as he saw the short cloaked woman balancing on a ledge outside his barred window.

"Shhh…you'll alert the guard…and yes its me….and sorry I called you Gerard. Which is funny because that's what I've thought your name was for the last few hours. "

"Now I'm hurt. I clearly remembered your name was Mina," sniffed Gerald. " So err am I supposed to offer you a hand or something. These bars prevent me from pulling you through."

Mina shook her head. "No, just stand back. I just wanted to make sure that was really you."

Gerald did as he was told, as a viscous liquid was sprayed on the bars. Gerald watched as the bars began to hiss and boil. It wasn't a quick process, but a after a minute one of the bars weakened enough to fall apart.

"Help me up!"

Gerald reached down and grabbed the small woman's hand and pulled her up through the bar. While the gap was still too small for him, it was the perfect size for little Mina.

"Whew thanks….whoa….look at you! All silver armour and everything. You had scruffy good looks before, but the armour really makes you something to behold," teased Mina as she checked out Gerald's new armor. "Someone might think you were a Prince or something, and we wouldn't want that," she chuckled.

"Ha, ha, very funny," frowned Gerald as he guessed she heard some or all of the conversation."Can you melt the other bars? If you get rid of a few more then I think I can escape. "

"Jump out a four story tower?" smiled Mina.

"It's better than staying here and become some dragon's love slave," shuddered Gerald.

Mina chuckled and began working on the other bars. Small streams of what Gerald guessed was acid shot from her fingers and slowly began dissolving the bars.

"So I guessed you didn't exactly find what you were looking for?" asked Gerald, recalling he led her into the forest so she can attempt to attract the attention of the Prince, who proved not to be a Prince.

"No," said Mina. "What I found was disappointing, but I should have expected it. I mean it was foolish for me to think that it would work. I…I'm so bad at this….I don't know what to do. I mean all I want is…." Mina's voice trailed off.

"To be loved. To be accepted. I understand, I'm a bard remember, I know these things," said Gerald in a comforting voice. "If it makes you feel better, it's not easy for anyone, everyone struggles with it."

"I suppose you are right, but the loneliness. I can't stand it anymore. You can see through my illusion, you know what it must be for me. Not being able to hold anyone is one thing, but I can't even talk to anyone," sighed Mina. The small fiery ball that followed her bobbed next to her head and seemed to grow red at her sadness.

Gerald looked at the small dark hair girl with the large saucer eyes, and studied her face. It was her nose. It had to be her nose, it was too perfect. She must have used her magic to change her nose, and was too embarrassed about it to go around in public. It must be pretty long or maybe covered in warts for that to be the case. Still it was just a nose and she was making a bigger deal than it already was.

"You know, a lot of people have big snouts as well. My uncle Jan for instance, he had a really big schnauser, everyone made fun of him, but he still got married. I mean married for love and to a good looking girl as well, not some girl he accidentally shagged and had to take responsibility for. Your nose doesn't define you , you know."

Mina stared at him confused. "Eh, what are you talking about. What's wrong with my nose?" she said while touching her nose. "You mean my real nose? You can see it? Oh that's right you can see through illusions. Sure its big, but I never thought of it as unusual, but I've never really had a baseline to measure it against save my siblings."

Gerald shook his head. Mina was trying to deny her problems. It was brave of her, but would only lead to more heartache for the girl. "I think you sell yourself short. You are a very lovely girl, and you have a good personality. And I mean that in a " that girl is easy to talk to" kind of way, not the "that girl is fat and all she can do is talk" kind of way."

Mina giggled. "I'm not sure if you are talking about me or the real me, or if you are simply trying to earn a gold, but I don't care keep with the flattery."

"If you need to talk, you can always come to me. I won't even charge my going rate of a gold. I mean if you want to talk about loneliness and disappointment. Well I'm your guy. I'm a bard, but I admit it, I'm not a good one, or at least by the standard measurement. Everyone expects you to sing, but I'm better at story telling. It's not fair that's how they rate you, on your weakness and not your strength. To be called a failure before you even started as you go from patron to patron, inn to inn, scratching some coins for a living," sighed Gerald. When he realized he had focused the attention from her to him, he grew red. "I'm sorry , I didn't mean to unload that on you."

"It's alright. In a way it helps. I guess misery likes misery," said Mina with a wink.

"Anyways, it doesn't matter if you didn't meet your Prince. He's not the person you wanted."

"Prince? What are you talking about?" asked Mina as she blinked in confusion. "I was looking for the dragon."

"Eh? I thought you were after the Prince. Well, anyways he's not the person you thought he was. I mean really not the person," said Gerald. "You are better off without him."

Mina nodded thought she still had the look of confusion about her. "Thank you. I needed that. I've only just met you, but I'm glad I did. It's not everyday you meet someone who can see the real you , and not run shrieking into the night. I've met others but you, they were like mages, priests, and even some knights. They all regarded me with suspicion. You on the other hand, you treat me like a person, and I thank you for that. You know, I thought you were dead, or at least had the smarts enough to run away after the goblins attacked. I stuck around to make sure you were okay, but saw no sign of you at the mines though one of the goblins did mention a tower. When I came here I didn't expect to find you here looking like a knight."

Gerald shrugged. "Well, funny enough, after the wolves attacked I thought the same happened to you. I thought you had gotten yourself killed or captured in your quest for love. I came here in a more round about way. It involved gnomes, half orcs, giants, and a crazy woman that smelled of lilacs."

"Ooohh that sounds exciting. I'm flattered you went to all this trouble but you didn't have to. I can take care of myself."

"I can take care of myself too."

"Oh? So I can leave now? "

"No, no, no. I'm more suited for different situations. Like urban combat, or courtly affairs, " he lied. However when he saw Mina grin widely he relented. "Okay, maybe I really can't take care of myself. I mean, stop teasing me, just get me out of here."

Mina smiled, she had won this round. "So what's up with the armour? You aren't really a knight are you? I would assume you just found it off a dead knight. They seem to be running around the woods tonight. You might scavenged it, and then wore it, but it fits you too perfectly, it was as if it was made for you."

"It's hard to explain, but let's just say I found a big secret when I was searching for you."

"Oh…I found a secret as well. A disappointing one, but I bet it's bigger than yours."

"Okay, you first," they both said simultaneously.

"After you, " they repeated after each other.

"Prince Aaron is actually Princess Aaron."

"The dragon is actually a wizard."

"Whoa, what?" the pair said again in unison. Gerald would have laughed, but this was all getting too strange and bizarre.

Gerald pointed to himself and when Mina nodded, he began his story. "Prince Aaron is actually Princess Aaron. The Mad King Gustav made a deal several decades ago with a wizard that he could have his first daughter, but when the time came he concealed his daughter's gender."

"Wait, wouldn't a wizard know. Divination magic isn't simple, but it's not hard either."

"He's an evoker. A specialist mage that is forbidden from that school of magic," said Gerald knowingly though he still wasn't too sure of the concept." Anyways, the dragon somehow caught the real Prince or Princess, but did not know about it so Lady Tessa, a knight I rescued from a cave, clobbered me and passed me off as him in exchange for the real one."

"Ohh, so that's how you got here. Well, when I was searching for you I found the dragon, but it wasn't really a dragon. Sure it looked like a dragon but it could not see me when I went invisible. You see…"

"Dragons can see invisibility, I know that," said Gerald knowingly, aping the knowledge Tig taught him.

"Yes…besides that, I saw him transform into a wizard. "

"Are you sure it wasn't his alternate form. Dragons can do that depending on species and age. Some can even maintain it indefinitely. Also, the dragonstone said there was a dragon in the area, so I think it really is a dragon."

"A dragon stone? What's that. I've never heard of it."

"It's a strange rock, some people I met in the woods had, it indicates the type, power, and even mental disposition of any nearby dragons, but it's hard to read. "

Mina stopped and stared at Gerald. "You really know a lot about dragons. Maybe even more than I do, I am surprised. "

"I am an endless font of information," bragged Gerald.

"Aye, it seems so. When we get out of here, I want to pick your brain about it, maybe over a mead or two."

Though Gerald had practically recited everything he knew about dragons already, the prospect of sharing a drink with Mina seemed very agreeable to him. She was pretty enough, and though she acted love sick she was not doing so in a crazy sort of way, which was a big plus. Also she seemed to really need to talk, which he was happy to oblige. Besides the both of them seem to get along, and it touched him to find out she was looking for him even as he was looking for her.

"Hey, do you think my wizard is the same as your wizard?" asked Mina as her already large saucer eyes grew larger.

Gerald stroked his chin. "Possibly. Oh was his name Zerd? I think that's the one that's owed a Princess." That does fit the narrative, but why would he want a Prince instead of a Princess? He's supposedly owed a Princess why capture a Prince.

"That name sounds familiar. Anyways, many wizards are bound by their word. Considering how often they deal with supernatural forces and how many deals they have to broker with eldritch powers, it's not that surprising. Maybe since he's owed a Princess he wants to …ummm….make you into a Princess.."

"Aye, I suspect castration," shuddered Gerald.

"There are other, more magical ways. He could simply polymorph you into a woman. He has the ability to change himself into a dragon so it wouldn't surprise me if he had a spell to swap genders, thought that would not be a permanent effect. The first dispel or antimagic aura you encounter would you change you back. There's also the cursed girdle."

"Cursed girdle?"

"Yes, a minor artifact that could irreversibly change one's gender if you but put it on. It could only be used once though so you can continually swap sexes. "

Gerald shook his head. He wasn't sure what method the wizard was going to employ , but he sounded more and more insane.

As Gerald considered the metal stability of his captor, Mina had succeeded in melting the bars. Instead of escaping immediately, she began to walk about the room, and looting.

"Hey, can I have this dress? It's really nice," said Mina as she ran her fingers through it.

"Sure, it's all yours," replied Gerald. Inspired by his companion's actions he began taking anything valuable as well, though she seemed able to carry more in that satchel of hers, versus the make shift sack he made with the bed sheets.

He grabbed the silver plates, the cutlery, and even the picture over the fireplace, as Mina began to unscrew the brass knobs.

"This guy is pretty loaded, are you sure you don't want to marry him," teased Mina.

"Rich, powerful, the perfect man. Too bad I'm not a big creepy old man with long finger nail kind of guy," sighed Gerald to the laughter of Mina even as she took the remaining bread, cheese, and wine.

"Bree Yark, BREE Yark. Yark. Yark!"

Gerald and Mina stopped their looting as angry shouts and the sounds of battle could be heard coming up through the tower. Mina's small fiery ball darted about, and eventually flew through the barred door, supposedly to scout.

"We should get out of here. Sounds like the wizard wants his bride early," said Gerald. "Err, how are we going to get out of here anyways. I assume you used your magic to get up here, but how am I supposed to get down."

"I could carry you, but I'm not that big, and not that strong. I have rope somewhere in my satchel," said Mina as she began rooting through her side pouch, before she could retrieve it though the cell door slammed open as a troop of goblins and bugbears filed in.


	12. Chapter 12

Instinctively, Gerald attempted to push Mina behind him, to shield her from the troop of goblins and bugbears that had marched into the room. The small woman however proved much harder to move than he anticipated. She just stood there, legs in an open stance, and her arms akimbo, ready to fight.

Seeing how the sorceress wouldn't move, Gerald simply slipped in front of her, using his taller and more bulky armoured body to block the goblins from seeing her. It wasn't a perfect shield, but that didn't matter since the goblins and bugbears seemed to focus their attention on something at the bottom of the stairs instead.

Four of the goblins stood shoulder to shoulder at the door, firing their bows downwards, while another eight stood ready , shields locked and crooked spears hefted over the archers before them in a deadly ring. Two bugbears stood at either side of the door, and kind of melded into the darkness. While Gerald had seen them 'hop' out of the shadows before, it was surprising for him to see that the bug bears weren't using a magical ability when they 'hopped' into the shadows. They were just really good at hiding, and their fur's markings seem to help break up the shadows they were trying to blend into. Finally some strange rock creature, hopped onto the roof and immediately froze into position, becoming more like stone than it was before. It was man sized with rocky skin, had horns, claws, a tail, and even wings, and kind of looked like those statues that they place atop fancy buildings to impress people.

The goblins and bugbears chattered in a series of Brees and Yarks and seemed nervously waiting for something.

Gerald wasn't sure what they were doing, but he knew what he needed to do. He glanced at Mina and motioned towards the open window with his chin. Mina nodded and the pair of them slowly edged towards the remaining exit. Before they could escape however, a red pinecone sailed over the goblins' heads and landed in the middle of the room.

Gerald's eyes grew big as he immediately tackled Mina and knocked her behind the bed. His sudden action caught the unusually heavy Sorceress by surprise and he was able to shove her off her feet, and the both of them tumbled to the ground.

"What are you do…." Began Mina. Before she could finish, the room exploded in a fiery burst, slamming both of them to the ground.

Gerald coughed up smoke as he rose from the wreckage. The bed and his armor had shielded him from most of the blast, but he was still woozy from the explosion. He glanced and saw Mina scowling below him, and several bits and pieces of goblins on the floor. About three of the remaining spear goblins as well as one of the bug bears attempted to reform their wall at the door, but before they could shuffle into position, death incarnate had smashed into their ranks.

A glowing hammer smashed the bugbear in the head, crumpling its skull and half its chest in a mighty blow. Before the bugbear could fall, the hammer's arc brought it slamming into the goblin to its right, the force of the blow was so mighty that the goblin and hammer continued onwards crushing the goblin next to it. The last goblin was able to duck under the blow and attempted to scramble out of the room on all fours. Briefly it disappeared, but a second later if flew screaming back in as a great boot connected with its face and sent it tumbling in a cartwheel into the smashed table.

A big half orc strode into the room as it wrenched its hammer from the mass of corpses. Gerald gave a cheer when he saw it was Ceto, somehow the half orc seemed even more savage than before as it waded into the goblins. Ceto bellowed a feral challenge just as the stone creature that had waited above as a statue seemed to animate again and dropped onto him. While the stone creature was covered in spikes and claws, which cut and stabbed its foe multiple times, the big half orc seemed to ignore these wounds as it locked its mighty arms around the creature's head and began to squeeze and twist it mercilessly.

Gerald watched the epic struggle, and then noticed another bugbear stepping out of the shadows. He wasn't sure if this was a new opponent, or if he simply lost track of it during the explosion, but saw it was going to attack Ceto with a club while he was preoccupied.

Gerald scrambled towards the bugbear, grabbing the closest weapon he could find, a silver spoon he was attempting to loot. He bounded the distance between himself and the bugbear, catching it by surprise, before he jabbed the bugbear in the rib and stopped the monster in its tracks.

Gerald was surprised, but not as surprised as the bugbear. The creature simply looked at Gerald in shock at his pathetic weapon, snarled and revealed its sharp teeth, before raining his club down on Gerald's head.

"Ow…Ouch…stop!" pleaded Gerald. "I'm the Prince remember, you're not supposed to hurt me."

The bugbear ignored him as he pressed his attack. Gerald was sure he would have been dead by now, but the armor did an amazing job of cushioning the blows of the club. Strikes to his shoulder, chest, and even the arms he used to shield his face, staggered him but did not fell him. He was still in a bad position as the blows forced him to his knees, and he desperately needed to counter attack.

Before he could jab him with a spoon again, the attacks had stopped. Gerald looked and saw Mina standing where the bugbear had been. The small woman was dusting off her hands, as the bugbear that had attacked him appeared to have been thrown face first into a wall. She stared at hands, horrified at what she had done. Gerald then noticed Ceto with his foot on the stone creature's back, savagely pulling its limbs out of his now crumbling body. It was fascinating to note that the one flexible creature appeared to be made of stone again, and powdered at the half orc's brutal attentions. Ceto was covered in bloody wounds, and seemed to be taking out his frustration on the shattered creature below him.

"Hi Gerald. Nice armor," said the half orc.

"You know this…gentleman," asked Mina as she watched the half orc resume his bloody task. She still seemed shaken by the bugbear she killed, but seemed to have recover some of her wits at least. While Gerald couldn't get her to move before, Mina slipped behind Gerald and instinctively grabbed his hand.

"Aye, he's one of the guys that saved me from the wargs and giants."

"Acht….you're all cut up again," said Tig as she finally hopped up the stairs. "Gerald! You're okay. I was hoping we would find you here. And…wait…that isn't Tessa."

"Oh, this is Mina. Mina this is Ceto and Tig, " said Gerald as he gave out introductions. Ceto nodded as Tig saluted. Mina on the other hand seemed suspicious of the pair and only offered a nervous bow from behind Gerald. "Armondo should be here somewhere. He's alright isn't he?"

Tig smiled. "He's securing the basement, but it seems we were over cautious. There seems to be no dragon here."

"Yeah, he took off to destroy my town," said Gerald. "Wait, why are you here? I thought you were headed to warn the town."

Tig sighed. "We were, but then we discovered you and Tess missing. I assumed that the bugbears kidnapped you two, and well…we weren't going to leave you behind. We tracked you to this tower and …well you can see the fruits of our daring rescue plan. This place is well guarded, but nothing a couple of alchemy bombs can't fix."

"Boom!" said Ceto as his eyes bulged and his hands made a small explosive show to accentuate his point.

"Thanks guys. I didn't expect this, but you know, if you wanted to rescue me, maybe don't lead with explosives in the room," laughed Gerald.

"It was only a stun bomb. Well maybe it had a little much polish in it," smiled Tig." Besides, you saved me from the shaman, and Ceto from the giants. So it's the least we owe you."

Mina looked at Gerald and seemed to be impressed at the praise showered on him.

"Basement is clear and I found something interesting to show you guys," said Armondo as he ran up the stairs. He waved a strange looking blue and white banner with what looked like a cross between a bird of prey and a turkey in the middle. Tig examined the banner in detail and seemed fascinated by it. "Oh hey Gerald. Nice armor. Hey, who's your new girl?"

"Err…new girl?" asked Mina as her eyes narrowed at Gerald/ Her small flickering ball grew an angry shade of orange and red. "Who's your old girl?"

"Tess, the tall attractive warrior woman that couldn't get her hands off of…." Began Armondo but was silenced by Tig, who had now abandoned the banner, and glared at him with equally narrow eyes.

"This is Mina. Gerald's fiancé , remember?" interrupted Tig.

"You have a fiancé Gerald? Congratulations!" said Armondo.

"Fiance?" asked Mina.

Gerald rolled his eyes and sighed. " Okay, okay. She's not my fiancé, she's just a girl I met earlier today, err I mean yesterday. I admit it I lied. I led her to the mines for some quick gold, but we were split up by those wargs you met earlier. I didn't want to leave her behind, and just made up that story to convince you to help me," Admitted the bard.

Tig looked at Mina and then Gerald, and then saw how close they were to each other and that somehow they managed to be holding each other's hands. Both the bard and sorceress suddenly seemed aware of this and released their grip on each other. "Ja, that's okay. All is forgiven. It might be a lie, but it doesn't seem that far from the truth. "

Gerald and Mina both blushed at the gnome's observation, while her flickering ball bobbed up and down above her.

"I haven't found Lady Tessa, but we should leave, before they send reinforcements from the mine, "said Armondo. "We got lucky finding Gerald and his…err…friend, but we can't rescue everyone."

"Don't worry about Tess," sighed Gerald. "She's safe…with the Prince." He wanted to tell them the Prince's secret, and how Tess betrayed him, but he decided now was not the time. They had enough to worry about.

"Really? " said Tig surprised. "Tess and Prince Aaron are safe?"

"Sir Ridley is with them too. I'm not sure if they are safe, but they did ….escape," said Gerald choosing his words carefully. "Let's worry about them later, we should leave now."

"Aye," said Tig. She was staring at her small box with the glowing dragonstone inside. "The dragon might not be in the tower, but it's nearby and its mind seemed to have settled a bit as well. That makes it a bit less erratic but a bit more dangerous in my opinion. We should make haste to avoid fighting it here, on its own territory, pick a battleground of our own choosing."

"There is no dragon, it's only a wizard that's transformed into a dragon," said Mina eyeing the stone carefully. "I've seen it."

Tig considered her statement then shook her head. "It might be his alternate form you saw, but regardless, I trust the stone."

Ceto sniffed around the room and shook his head. "Dragon, near."

"Dragon, wizard, lemming juggling clown. I don't care what this thing is," said Armondo. "I just know we have to leave…now. Some army is headed to Daggerhall, and I think we should at least warn them before they get wiped out. "

"Tess and the Prince might have already done so," suggested Gerald.

"You want to take that chance?" asked Armondo.

While Gerald wasn't particularly fond of his village, it was still HIS village. Squat old Inga, shrewd Sanngror, pretty Ilsa, girl stealing Rolf. They weren't his favorite people, but they were HIS people and he didn't want them to come to harm.

The group nodded, and decided to push towards the town. Even if the army had a head start, it was getting to be daybreak and goblins were notoriously bad seeing in the day as humans were at night. It would be close, but Armondo thought that they can reach Daggerhall in time if they marched double time.

As the group filed out of the tower towards the town, Armondo waved Gerald aside."Hey sorry that you lost Tess to the Prince, but hey you know. The guy got his looks, power, and money going for him. It's hard to keep girls when someone like him is around."

Gerald wanted to correct him, but he remained silent once again. The 'Prince' might have those things, and he even had the girl but at least Gerald had his manhood.

"If it's any consolation, " smiled Armondo." I think your new girl is better than the old one."

Gerald wanted to point out that Mina wasn't his girl, but a part of him wanted her to be.

" She might not have smooth creamy skin, or fill out her armor as nicely as Lady Tessa, but at least she's not moody or crazy either. Which is a plus."

"She's not really my girl. She's just a girl I met yesterday," sighed Gerald.

Armondo looked at Mina and then at Gerald, and shook his head. "That's a shame."


	13. Chapter 13

As the group marched to Daggerhall, Armondo shoved a small bag infront of Gerald.

"What's this?"

"Your share of the magical loot that Tig detected. There's not much, but go pick something out of there, " said Armondo reluctantly. "Not my idea, but Tig said you two helped out so you deserve something. Myself I would have defined 'helped out' as killing more than one bugbear."

"Wow, thanks," said Gerald. "You're all heart."

"Hey, I have wives and kids to support. We half orcs are quite fecund."

"Wives? As in more than one."

"Don't ask. Let's just say, I travel a lot," sighed Armondo." Just pick something, and pass that bag back."

Gerald looked into the bag, and saw a couple of daggers that glowed slightly, a large stylized feather made out of stone, and a men's weapon girdle. "Hey, Mina mentioned something about cursed girdles, you think that's one of them?"

"You want the girdle? Not my first choice, but it's all yours," said Armondo as he snatched the bag and tossed the belt to Gerald.

"What, I didn't," protested Gerald." Hey this, item is cursed!"

"Then I suggest you don't wear it," said Armondo as he took his leave from Gerald. He tossed the bag to Ceto for his brother to make a pick before heading forward to trail blaze through the woods for the group. The town wasn't that far away, but they would need to make haste if they were to get there before the army.

While Gerald enjoyed the stocky half orc's company, he felt uncomfortable with their previous conversation.

"That's a shame." Was Armondo's comment when Gerald admitted he harbored no feelings for Mina. After all, they had only met yesterday. She was a sorceress from some minor noble family or rich merchant house, while he was just bard from a small town that barely eked a living singing about two headed ogres and pixie riding wolves. They had nothing in common, but….

He couldn't help thinking that maybe he was too hasty to comment. Maybe he did have feelings for her? Considering he was a bard, he must believe there was a chance for love at first sight? That belief comes with the job description didn't it?

After the wolf attack he did stick around to try to rescue her, and she did the same for him, though they were both clearly incompetent and only ended up in the same spot due to crazy Lady Tessa's plan to rescue the Prince. He jabbed a bugbear with a spoon for her, while she smashed him with her fist.

How did she do that anyways? Was it magic? She could summon horses and go invisible, so it didn't seem that outrageous to boost her strength and fling bugbears aside. She was clearly shaken up about it, and though she acted like nothing had happened, Gerald saw how troubled she was after her strike.

Gerald considered simply asking her about it, but Tig interrupted the march as she consulted with Armondo.

"That banner, are you familiar with it?" the gnome asked from Ceto's wicker basket.

"Only one house has the vulture turkey as its emblem, and that is the house of Alak Dool."

Gerald had heard of Baron Dool. He or his children, he wasn't sure who was in charge anymore, had a small territory to the north of Westholding, and swore fealty to the ancient and mostly fallen kingdom of Norwold. While Gerald had heard of his lands, he knew very little save that they were strange folk and kept to themselves. Very little trade or visitors came from those parts.

"Do you think this dragon and these goblins are under his employ? That would explain why they want this territory. It's a simple land grab," asked Tig.

"That doesn't explain why the dragon would work for the man. A dragon seldom works for another unless it's his equal or greater. Small ones, maybe but I doubt a Red thirty footer would treat Baron Dool as an equal," shrugged Armondo. "If he had something the dragon wanted, it would simply take it."

Gerald noticed that Mina seemed interested in the conversation, and he could see her scribble something down under the light of her small glowing orb.

"Unless of course Gerald and Mina are correct. That it isn't really a dragon," said Tig. Once again she revealed the dragonstone and once again it shone brightly. "Nein. It says the dragon is close, but I don't see it. Acht. You would think it would be furious that someone sack his tower and stole his Prince. You would think it would set everything on fire in his vexation."

Gerald noted that Tig still believed that Tessa somehow escaped with the Prince, and felt no need to correct her. As a bard, he knew a thing or two about rumors and gossip. It was something to be kept secret, unless you need it.

"The banner might simply be something they stolen. Perhaps they raided the Dool lands before coming here," shrugged Armondo.

"Ja. Possibly," said Tig as she considered his statement. After a few minutes of contemplation she simply shrugged with no answer. Armondo took this as a sign to forge ahead scouting once.

After a few minutes Tig pointed to Mina's belt.

"Miss Mina, may I inquire about your dagger?" asked the gnome as she sat in Ceto's wicker basket. Gerald saw Tig point towards the blade with the wolf pommel he had spotted earlier at the inn. "I'm a gnome, so naturally I'm curious about all things interesting."

"Oh, this is from my mother. I rarely use it. I keep it to remind me who I am and where I came from."

"The insignia looks like that of the Order of the Hound."

"Yes it is. Are you familiar with it?"

"A famed house of knights that reaches from the Land of the Northern Orders, to Grom City, to even the Western Freeholds. Their Matriarch is said to lord over their Freehold keep, the last in a long line of dragonslayers," recited Armondo from ahead.

"Oh, you are familiar with my mother."

Tig stood up on the basket and almost fell out of it. "Wait..What? You are the daughter of Lady Kit? The Mistress of Dragons? "

"My mother is Lady Kitahria von Custeinson, yes. And mistress of dragons is a bit of an exaggeration."

"She slew Magda the terrible did she not? One of the last great dragons? A one hundred and fifty footer!"

"She fought Magda, along with her liege Sir Jose von Custeinson. They defeated and even blinded Magda, but did not slay her, though she was present at her death. It was a terrible battle that devastated all the Western Freeholds. Many children were left orphaned, including my siblings and myself. Lady Kitahria took us in, and taught many of my brothers and sisters the ways of chivalry. As you can see, I'm a little small for that particular endeavor, and I cared very little for violence, so instead I concentrated on the art of sorcery, " sighed Mina with a weary voice. Gerald could tell she had been questioned and had told this story many times.

"Acht! She's one of my heroes! Wait…that was over a hundred years ago…for a human you don't look that old," said Tig as she appraised the sorceress. Gerald noted that while the gnome attempted to look upbeat, she could not hide her disappointed look.

"I'm not a human,"said Mina in a small voice as she fell back from the group.

Ceto grunted, while Tig stammered. The gnome attempted to apologize or something, but said nothing as she sat back in her wicker basket with a sullen look.

Not a human? Gerald thought it an odd comment. He doubt she was a gnome. If she was, then Tig would be the first to detect it. While she was short, she was still a good foot and a half taller than Tig, who was already tall for her race. She wore tall leather boots, so Halfling was ruled out. Gerald had met a lot of the weedsmokers in his travels, and although not all of them were short and chubby, some were short and thin, and almost all of them walked around barefooted. She didn't have pointy ears, so she wasn't an elf. While she wasn't fat, she didn't possesses that lithe elven physique either. And since she was pretty small, half elf was immediately ruled out. Gerald could not imagine little Mina a part of that large ponderous race. Perhaps Mina was a dwarf. Gerald knew that dwarf men all had beards, but Mina wasn't a male so she was exempt from that trait. He also recalled attempting to shove her earlier, and found that she was unmovable. Weren't dwarves very sturdy on their feet or something? Also didn't she just mention that she was from the Western Freeholds? An orphan from those parts. Gerald knew many dwarves hailed from that area. Was she an orphaned dwarf? They've been moving there steadily from the other dwarven kingdoms for the last few centuries due to the wealth of minerals and ores there. So it wouldn't surprise him that she could be a dwarf maid.

As Gerald pondered Mina's racial origins, Mina stepped back and kept pace with Gerald.

"Can we talk?" she asked.

Gerald was mesmerized by her large saucer eyes, and almost tripped when she asked.

"I talked to Tig while you were talking with Armondo earlier, and she gave me her blessing."

"Eh? Blessing for what?" asked Gerald suspiciously.

"She said she won't hold it against me if I leave. I agreed to summon mounts when we reach the edge of the forest, and there I will part paths with the rest of the group."

"What? Why? We could use you…."

Mina's large eyes turned downwards.

"I am not a warrior, or a killer. I took a vow of non-violence years ago to help strengthen my convictions."

"Eh? That's not true. I saw you kill that bugbear in the tower with your bare hands."

Mina's gaze returned back to Gerald, and the bard could see the wetness in them. "I know. I broke my vow in the tower. I didn't want to do it, but it was instinct. I don't regret what I did, but it terrifies me that I could kill so easily. I don't blame you for forcing my hand, but …it….it was going to smash your head in. I could not let it do that…and I lost control…."

"I…I….thank you…" was all Gerald could say.

"There's a beast, a demon inside me. You can see through my illusion, you know what it is. You know how terrible it is…"

Gerald nodded. He didn't think being a dwarf was that bad. He had heard of dwarves that were berzerkers or that craved nothing but battle, but he was sure that wasn't the type of dwarf Mina was. Even if she used her illusions to hide her big and probably lumpy red nose, she was basically a good person. The world's a tough place, and even good people have to kill once in a while to survive.

Oblivious to Gerald's thoughts, Mina continued. " …It feeds on violence and death, and I'm afraid to release it. Afraid to embrace it. Afraid of what I might become if I do. It's not just the power of my magic, it's the realization that I might enjoy hurting people, even if they are goblins. I can't accept that. I'm better that that. I can rise above my species. Do you understand Gerard?"

"Err…my name is Gerald…not Gerard," corrected the bard. Mina looked stunned at how her speech was so easily derailed, but laughed at the comment.

"So you are, so you are," she smiled giving a break to her brooding.

Gerald looked at the small smiling sorceress. Were dwarves really that violent? He had heard of the mountain folk and their eternal wars against goblins, orcs, and giants, but Mina didn't seem too concern with them. She didn't seem to have a problem with Ceto and Armondo, and didn't seem particularly eager to fight the goblins and giants of the invading army. He didn't think that she would have to worry about being consumed by a battle fury or something like that. Still, every dwarf that Gerald had ever met had an axe, hammer, or sword ready.

"I'm not sure what to say Mina," said Gerald. "I was hoping you would fight alongside with us, but I understand your reasons for leaving. Hells, if it wasn't my town I would be leaving with you."

"You still can Gerald. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Eh?"

"Don't make me say it….I …I think….look…you don't owe this town anything. You might think you are a big part of the community, but from the little I've seen, they treat you poorly. They trample you into the dirt, and grudgingly feed you. You deserve better than that. Come with me. Travel with me. I admit I was foolish coming here. I didn't find anything I came here for. Love, romance, or even someone like me to learn from. I didn't find any of that, but I did find you. Besides Lady Kit, and my siblings, no one has treated me like you when they knew who I am. You've seen through my illusion and it didn't even faze you. Most people would flee in terror. I don't know if you are too stupid to know the danger, or if you are too brave to care."

Flee in terror? That seemed a bit of an exaggeration. Gerald examined Mina's face. She seemed quite sincere, but he still wasn't sure what the big deal was. Sure dwarves were outsiders, and considered a warrior race, but they weren't that bad. He's shared a pint of mead with them on occasion when they passed through town and they weren't that terrible. Maybe's Mina's nose was a lot worse than he imagined. Maybe it was the size of a cucumber or something, and she was really ashamed of it. She seemed shy, but she didn't think her self-esteem was that low.

"I don't care about how you really look, I just know you're a good person," shrugged Gerald. He looked at her large saucer eyes and wondered if they were fake too. He had met a few women mages and sorceresses in his time, most were small time adventurers and entertainers but those that dabbled in illusion often did so to give themselves flamboyant hair or larger chests, he never knew one that concealed their nose before.

Mina smiled. "Yes, I know that. That's why I want you to come with me. Keep me company, travel a bit, see the world. Don't stay here amidst the death and slaughter that is sure to come."

Gerald was tempted. Really tempted. Every fiber in his body said go with the girl. He only just met her, but that didn't matter. She just felt right. Who cares about her nose, you'll never see it since she hides it under an illusion anyways. She was personable enough, and she had that shy girl charm to her. She was also rich which was never a bad thing since he had grown up poor. He remembered the gold she was throwing around in town, and he heard the stories that she told about her mother. It would be a great time, something he always dreamed about, travelling the world with a beautiful girl.

Still….Daggerhall was Daggerhall, despite all its faults and the way it treated him. It was a miserable mud hole, but at least it was his miserable mud hole. He would love to leave it and never see it again, but not like this. Not as an army was ready to raze it to the ground.

"You know, I can't fight that well and I'm terrified of battle," said Gerald. "….but it's my town we're talking about. Even if I can't fight alongside Tig, Ceto, and Armondo at last I can put out fires, drag the wounded away or build barricades or something. I can't do much, but I have to do something."

Mina sighed. "I knew you were going to say that. I guess that's the reason I admire you. Fearless even if you are in over your head. Here, the gold I owe you. I hope you live to spend it," she said as she handed him a sack from her satchel.

Gerald should have been over joyed. 100 gold was more money than he had seen in a lifetime, but the bag might have been lead for all he cared.

After a few minutes, the group reached the edge of the forest. It was daybreak and the flickering lights of the town could be seen in the distance.

"This is where I part ways," said Mina. She waved her hands several times in succession summoning three mounts for the group. "Are you sure about this?"

"Well, the three of us like to fight, and we have unfinished business with a dragon," said Tig as she held up her glowing dragonstone. The two half orcs then mounted their steeds, with the gnome in Ceto's basket.

"The dragon is a wizard," repeated Mina once more as she smiled and hug the three dragonslayers. "And you Gerard? "

Gerald didn't even bother to correct her. He simply bent down and kissed the girl with the wide saucer eyes on the head. He then turned to his horse and attempted to quickly mount it like a swashbuckler, but faltered and almost fell on his face. " A little help here?"

Ceto rode up easily, and the big half orc hefted Gerald up with one hand and plopped him on his horse."Aren't you going to summon yourself a mount?"

Mina shook her head. "You should know that I can fly, but I have to drop my illusion to do so. I seldom do that because it sows panic when people see me."

"If I live through this, I'll come looking for you," said Gerald.

"I'm counting on it," said Mina, but he could tell that she didn't believe he would survive.

As the group rode towards the village, Tig turned to Gerald."Illusion, what did she mean by illusion?"

"Oh, its nothing. She just likes to cover her big nose with a glamer spell," shrugged Gerald.

"So what makes her able to fly without her magic covering her nose?"

Gerald scratched his head. He had absolutely no idea.


	14. Chapter 14

Gerald and company rode through the tall summer grass. It wasn't the shortest route to town, but Armondo liked the cover.

Smoke drifted upwards in the distance. At first Gerald thought that the goblins had already attacked Daggerhall, but after a few seconds of confusion, he realized it was from the Green's farmstead on the outskirts of town. Goblins, mounted and dismounted, seemed merrily dancing around the burning buildings, causing more fires and killing any livestock too slow to escape them. Further back in the distance, Gerald saw several farms had already succumbed to a similar fate.

"They're not attacking yet," said Armondo as he read Gerald's expression. "They're just having their fun, terrorizing the locals before the big attack."

Gerald grew sick to his stomach. "Having their fun? Is this a game to them?"

"Yup," said Ceto.

"Kobolds fight for survival, Orcs fight for territory, Giants fight for food, and Goblins fight for fun," sighed Tig. "It's not too different from the so called 'good' races, except we put on airs of how noble and honorable our wars are in comparison to theirs."

"But fun? They just burned the Green's farmstead. They've lived there for over a hundred years. Gone…just like that, all for a bit of fun."

"Well of the most common humanoid races, goblins are the dumbest, and I don't mean that in a racist kind of way. They might have large heads, but most of their skulls are full of bone, leaving little space for their brains to develop properly. Also, those little creeps have a wide malicious streak in them too. They don't build their communities, they simply break and steal from others, or just move in to some ruin. And due to their small size, not often to their advantage."

"Eh?"

"One sec," said Armondo as he turned to Tig. "Is it safe?"

Tig opened her box, and Gerald noticed that the dragonstone seemed inert for a change. She poked it a few times just to make sure, but it did nothing except give off a dull unimpressive sheen. "Safe enough."

"Watch this. I'll show you how dumb they are," said Armondo as the group neared the burning farmstead. The squat half orc drew his great bow, an impressive feat since he was still mounted. After a few seconds of aiming, he let loose his shaft. Gerald try to follow the arrow but it was obscured by the distance and smoke. He wasn't sure if it hit or not, but one of the goblins suddenly dropped to the group mid prance.

Gerald made a fist pump as the goblins screamed in fury. They then scanned around and about a dozen of them seemed to point directly at him. The goblins mounted their wargs which then release a great howl, before charging straight towards him.

"They aren't pointing at me are they? I mean they must be going after Armondo right," said Gerald as the distance between them began to close. He scanned to his side, and saw that his companions were gone, and he was riding in the field by himself.

"Guys, guys?" said Gerald. He then noticed their mounts were sitting under cover of the tall grass. Gerald attempted to guide his mount to do the same, but his control over his mount was still considered poor.

"Their eye sight isn't so good in the day light, but I bet they can spot a silver knight on a horse. I would ride to town if I were you, or to the forest,"said Armondo. "Just ride."

Gerald wasn't sure where he was pointed at, but did as he was told. He spurred his mount on wards, at first riding straight towards the goblin and then to the right, heading straight for the town. Gerald felt similar to the chase he had endured earlier in the forest, but there were not obstacles to dodge here, only a straight foot race between warg and horse.

He could feel the goblins' closing in, their tiny mouths screaming and their wargs baying, but just as quickly as it began, the ruckus behind him grew distant.

Gerald glanced back, and saw that the goblins had indeed broken off the chase. Four of them were lying on the ground, pierced by arrows. Gerald wasn't sure what happened, but he assumed that Armondo must have been shooting them before they finally figured it out and spotted him. As they closed, the half orc scout dropped another one before the goblins and their red eyed wolves fell on the half orc archer. Instead of ripping him apart though, Ceto broke his cover. The big half orc smashed one warg in the side, sending wolf and goblin tumbling violently on the ground. He then swatted another warg square in the head, sending the creature careening to the ground as his goblin was tossed into the air. An arrow impaled the goblin before it landed, but it wasn't needed. The goblins had already lost over half their numbers, and were fleeing in panic. Ceto managed to strike one of the wargs in the leg as it withdrew, and Armondo finished both it and its rider before they limped away.

"See we can have fun too," smiled Armondo as he laughed at their retreating enemy. "That will keep them from honest for a while. They'll think twice about burning any more farmsteads unless they come en masse. "

Gerald bowed towards the half orc scout in thanks, he then turned to Tig. " Why didn't you wipe them out with one of your bombs? They were bunched close enough, weren't they?"

Tig shrugged. "I could blow up a half dozen goblins now. They can pick up my tactic and either attack in echelons or send in a skirmish line first. Or I can save my tricks, and get them when they least expect it."

Gerald wasn't a tactician but that sounded good enough for him. "So what were you doing with the dragonstone before Armondo attacked."

"Checking for dragons of course. We weren't going to commit to a battle with a dragon nearby. We don't want to get caught like we did in the woods. Getting waves of goblins thrown at us, till we used too much of our resources to face the dragon. "

Gerald wanted to point out that they had saved him in the woods, but then he realized what Armondo was saying and he remained silent. No need to suggest that he was the reason that they fled form the dragon there.

After another thirty minutes the group had reached the outskirts of town. Gerald noticed no one was about, and hoped that they either fled or retreated into the motte and bailey in the center of the town. There were no signs of battle, but Gerald hoped that they weren't ambushed in the night and dragged away by the goblin army unawares.

"Is something bothering you?" asked Armondo as he glanced up and down the buildings.

"Yes and no. Do you think the townsfolk, were, you know, taken away?"

"Doubtful. I think Tessa and the Prince managed to warn them," shrugged the half orc. While Armondo was confident that Tess had warned the town after she rescued the Prince from the tower, Gerald wasn't so sure. The town was on the borderlands, the opposite direction of Cloverworth the only place with a proper garrison. If Tessa and the Prince warned the town, they would risk being cut off from rescue since they had no mounts. Given what Tessa had told him, he doubt they could 'summon' horses like Mina could. Still, the big army and all the burning of the countryside probably alerted the townsfolk anyways. Maybe they did manage to save themselves, though that probably meant the Greens and the other farmers outside of town probably did not make it out as they inadvertently warned the town.

"One more thing," asked Gerald. "Tig told Mina that you guys like to fight, and then told me that the goblins fight for fun…."

Armondo shrugged. "I could say that was simple bravado on our Captain's part, or just a poorly worded analogy, but I suppose that it's pretty close to the same thing. I guess that orc blood in us makes us a tad bit blood thirsty. Gnome blood is pretty vicious too, remember the four hundred year they had with Grom? I think she wanted to say that we like to fight dragons. For us however it isn't purely fun it's a challenge, a test of our skills."

"Eh? A test? Couldn't you test yourself on something simpler. Like a giant or a demon, or a giant demon or something?"

"Heh. Well giants individually are not as dangerous as dragons, but collectively they are. Still, all things considered they are just big lumbering humans in terms of combat difficulty. As for demons, well despite their 'evil' they're just armored mages that like to bite people's faces off. Dragons on the other hand, well at least those bigger than ten feet, are like a force of nature. Fighting one isn't like a fighting a big fire breathing lizard, it's like standing up against a volcano, or braving an avalanche, or resisting a hurricane. It's certainly doable, but it's not easy. "

"So you guys are danger junkies?"

Armondo considered his statement and then nodded. "Basically yes, but the way you put it is so crass. Anyways, I have a few questions for you before we reach the center of the town."

"Go ahead. I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability."

"Okay. Which buildings here are made of stone, and which have the biggest cellars and basements."

Gerald wasn't expecting that line of questioning, but did his best to answer. "The Greenmaiden Tavern, as well as the Temple of Koryis are made of stone, the rest of the buildings are wood and thatch. I believe the general store, and the Tavern, have pretty big basements. I don't think the Temple does yet, though there were talks about building catacombs below it, but the townsfolk didn't go for that. Something about keeping it the graveyard outside of a town surrounded by an iron fence incase of a zombie invasion."

"Do any of the basements connect? Or are near each other."

"I don't think any of them connect, but the Inn is close to the store house. There's at least a brick wall between them though, and maybe five feet of stone," said Gerald recalling the time he passed out in the Inn's cellar after a particularly rowdy Moon festival.

"Which building has the highest accessible window?"

"Umm...the Inn. No, the church. Actually I'm not sure, I've never measured."

"Thank you, that should be all," said Armondo just as they finally reached the motte and bailey in the middle of town.

While Daggerhall was not the most defensible town on the borderlands, given its wide open farmlands and its proximity to relatively untamed forests and hills, King Gustav had the foresight to order a motte and bailey to be built roughly thirty years ago, long before he gained the reputation as the 'Mad King'.

It was a large, though unimpressive design. A large stone administrative building on a steep hill, with several warehouses and barracks below it. Surrounding the whole area was a twenty foot wooden wall, and surrounding the wall was a twenty foot ditch filled with water and sharpen stakes. Though it had stood for almost thirty years, it had proven mainly untested throughout that time. It had stopped Gerald's ogre that might have had one or two heads in the past, as well as a brief but doomed attack by bandits ten years ago, but it had never withstood the fury of a full strength siege.

Also, given that it was aesthetically ugly, it was seldom occupied. While it did have an administrative building, the mayor of Daggerhall would often conduct his business elsewhere. It even had a church as well, but few attended services there. The most common visitors it had was the local ranchers that led their cattle to the bailey to water their livestock before they sold them at the auction. Not to say it was left in disuse. Gustav, even when he had descended into his 'Mad' era routinely sent craftsmen there to maintain it once a year.

As Gerald and his companions reached the main drawbridge of the bailey. A shrill voice shouted a challenge. "Halt! Be ye goblin or friend?"

"Raise the bridge Inga its me! Gerald!"

"Eh? What's with the shiny armour? Gerald was too poor to afford clothes let alone armour. Did ye steal it?" asked the short fat woman. While most of her was safely behind the wooden parapets guarding the drawbridge, Gerald could see she was wearing some sort of mail, and what looked like a cooking pot on her head.

Gerald considered saying that he was knocked out cold and some beautiful woman dressed him up in it, but he doubt Inga would believe him. "I found it in the old tower," he lied. It's full of monsters and goblins and a dragon."

Inga considered his statement, but did not lower the drawbridge.

"By the way, I'm glad you all made it to the motte in time. I was hoping you wouldn't be caught by surprise."

"Luckily we were warned," grunted Inga.

"Oh, let him in," said Sanngror's distinct voice out of sight. "It's clearly Gerald. His girly friend paid his tab yesterday. So he's in good standing with me. "

Gerald frowned. There were so many inconsistencies in Sanngror's statement he wanted to correct but he did not want to antagonize his only ally on the other side of the wall. His prudence paid off as the drawbridge was lowered for him. The device started slow, but after half way, it must have skipped a gear or something as it came crashing down.

Gerald breathed a sigh of relief as he walked in.

"Halt…no orcs! I don't care if they're with you. They might be working with them goblins," said Inga.

"What? They just killed over a half dozen of them burning the farmer Green's farmstead. They're the best fighters I know."

"No deal. They can stay outside."

"It's okay Gerald," said Armondo. "We're use to this in the small towns. In fact, I'm surprised they haven't shot us," chuckled the half orc.

"We prefer someplace more open to fight anyways. Maybe the Inn, as long as there's an escape route in the basement," said Tig as she consulted with Armondo. "That little fort of theirs is just a big coffin when fighting a dragon."

Gerald considered arguing for the gnome to be let in, but it didn't seem like she wanted to go. Besides, Ceto wasn't allowed, and she seemed to be attached to him in more ways than her wicker basket on his back.

"Well, okay. Best of luck to you three. I would join you, but I'm not much of a fighter, so I'll try to put out fires or build barricades or something when the goblins attack."

"Sing," suggested Ceto. "Singing good."

"Err…okay. I'll throw in a ditty as well," said Gerald. He thanked the three companions and wished them lucky before he crossed the drawbridge.

As he reached the other side, he saw Inga and Sanngror in their loose fitting mail and matching pot helmets. Next to them was a very worried looking Rolf. The young girl friend stealing man marched over to Gerald nervously, eyeing his new armour up and down. "Umm…you are wanted at the main hall…"

"Eh? Already? By whom?"

"Lady Tessa just gave me instructions to escort you there."

Gerald was shocked. Lady Tessa? Here? "Are you sure?"

"Aye, she asked for you by name."


	15. Chapter 15

It took Gerald a good thirty minutes to enter the main hall. It wasn't because he was tired and needed a brief rest before responding to the summons, or that he was nervous to confront the woman that had betrayed him to the dragon ,or was it a wizard?, though both would have been good answers it was because he was simply confused about the current naming convention.

At first Gerald thought that the main hall must have been a reference to the dining area in the barracks since that was the largest hall in this particular cluster of buildings. Instead he found it occupied by townsfolk, mostly the ones from smaller family units. Then Gerald thought the main hall must have been a reference to the main storage room, since that was probably the most central and important room of this area. That too proved wrong. It wasn't as if he hadn't asked for directions either, but most of the guards or townsfolk pointed him to the previous two areas. Finally when Gerald had given up hope that he would find this spot, he spotted Rolf, the one that had given him the initial summons, on the wall.

"Rolf! Where's this blasted main hall?"

"Oh hey Gerald, why aren't you at the main hall?"

"I would be there if I knew where in the Abyss it was!"

Rolf looked at Gerald dumbly until he pointed up the hill. "Oh, I meant the main entry room of the motte."

Gerald shook his head. He had been up and down this area as a kid, and that was a dumb name for it. That room was neither a hall, nor considered main by any definition. It wasn't central, big, or important. If anything it should have been called the large shoe room instead of taking on the pretentious airs of a main hall.

Annoyed, Gerald marched up the hill to the administrative building. The two militia that stood guard were strapping young lads that wore their mail better than anyone else in the fort so far. They looked like Farmer Green's sons, but it was hard to tell under their helmets.

"Lady Tessa is awaiting you inside," said one with a broken voice as he nervously eyed Gerald. "Umm, we saw what you did at our farm. Err.. thanks."

Gerald wasn't sure what he was afraid of, and then realized he was still wearing that silver armour that Tess poured him into last night. He would have taken it off, but he hadn't been given a chance because of the hectic pace of events, and he also wasn't sure how without assistance.

The two guards escorted Gerald inside to the 'large shoe room'. It was tall for an antechamber, with a half dead foreign shrub in the middle of the room, and a double door opposite from the main doors for entrance into the administrative building. Gerald recalled the shrub was a gift from the local druid, and the mayor at the time thought it would be grand to plant it here, not factoring in that the only source of sun was the half opened roof, which consisted of several chipped panes of glass at a steeped angle, surrounded by questionable wood working.

"You two leave the bard with me," said an imperious voice from above. Gerald scanned the room looking for the source of the voice, while the two Green boys panicked and almost ran into each other as they scrambled out. Yesterday he probably would have joined them and fled as well, but right now Gerald was simply too tired to do so.

As Gerald continued to look, Lady Tessa stepped out from a ledge high above near the half opened roof. Gerald was speechless. Though yesterday he considered her attractive and pretty even after rolling around in a chasm for who knows how long, after a little cleaning up and probably a bath, Lady Tessa was simply stunning. She was wearing a heavy mail shirt instead of her silver plate, but her noble features, striking physique, creamy skin, and her long curly brown hair that fell past her shoulders sucked all his attention from the rest of the stuffy shoe room. Gerald could have been back in the ruined tower, in the middle of a busy market, or even at the royal ball and it wouldn't matter, his attention would have only been focused on her, looking high and mighty as she looked down on him.

When the guards finally left, her strict composure softened. Her shoulders slumped, and even her face took on a kinder demeanor. "Gerald! I'm so glad you made it out of that dragon's tower!" she said as she skipped down a circular staircase.

Tess hugged him when she reached the bottom. "I saw you from up top fighting those goblins you handled them well. I couldn't believe it was you at first, but it was clear who you were when you came reached the bailey," she said as her warm body pressed tightly to his.

Gerald had witnessed her sudden change in personality before, but he still wasn't use to it. "Err, hi," he said nervously. "Tig and the others, you remembered them right? They rescued me. I…umm..I suppose you want your armour back. Or at least I think this is your armour. It resembled your old suit, except well, it's missing the …."

Gerald was at a loss for words. What do you call the breast plate portion of full plate that was molded to resemble a woman's breasts. "…..errr boob plate?"

"It's glammered mithral mail silly, an enchantment that allows you to change the appearance of the armour though not its physical qualities. I'm not as strong as the other members of the Silver Guard, so Lord Beau had it designed for me," she explained. "As for returning it, no. I couldn't take it back. Think of it as payment for your sacrifice so I can free the Prince. You keep it. You can keep the rings and amulet I put on you too to complete your disguise. "

Gerald wanted to point out that he didn't sacrifice himself, but it was she that had sacrificed him to the dragon. The results were the same, but a pretty significant difference in his mind.

"I'm so glad you escaped! I was truly sad that I had to leave you behind, truly I am, but you know my vows to the Prince and all."

"Understandable," lied Gerald. He was still mad, but the edge of his anger had slipped away given the close proximity of the beautiful Tess. Her hot breath, and slight lilac scent, it tempted hm with desire. "So, how did you end up here? I thought you were going to take the Prince away and warn the other towns."

Tess frowned, though even that did little to mar her beauty. "That was my intention, but Prince Aaron recovered and insisted that we come to Daggertalls…"

"Daggerhall," corrected Gerald.

"Aye…Daggerhall and help with the defense. Riddle continued to Cottonsworth, and hopefully he will arrive with reinforcements soon."

Reinforcements? Gerald's hopes rose. The town of Daggerhall was no match for the dragon and the small army of goblins, but reinforcements from Cottonsworth completely changed the game. They had a keep there, real soldiers, and knights. With their help they can rout the goblins and send them packing back to the Dool lands or where ever they hailed from.

"So, did your friends …ummm… did you tell them?" she whispered softly.

"Your secret is safe with me. They didn't need to know, and I can be discreet," said Gerald. Though Mina knew of the Prince's true identity, he didn't think she would be the type to talk wildly. As he thought of the dwarven girl her attention drifted from the beautiful woman in front of him , he wondered what she was doing right now. Even though they only parted paths a few hours ago, he wondered if she still travelling, was she safe, and even if she was thinking of him.

"Anyways, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for everything that I've done to you," said Tess as she hugged him again and regained his attention. "I would have waited till after the battle to tell you this, but the Prince wanted to see you right away."

"What? The P..P..Prince? Wants to see me?"

"Yes silly. Just beyond those doors," said Tessa as she pointed to the double doors on the other side of the shoe room. "Umm…the Prince doesn't receive much guests, given his….err condition. He only deals directly with the Silver Guard, so you should consider it an honour to have an audience with him. Just be careful not to stare and…"

As Tessa gave him instructions, a horn could be heard from the distance. It wasn't a big booming war horn, like one expected from goblins or giants, but a higher pitch horn that played a crisp abbreviated version of the national anthem. Tess scrambled up the circular stairs, and poked her head up into the steeped glass. Gerald had never considered using it as a lookout post, but considered it made sense, due to its relative height.

"It's Sir Ridley and a column of riders from Cottonsworth!" exclaimed Tessa.

Gerald breathed a sigh of relief. All his worry that the town would be razed to the ground vanished at the news of reinforcements. Hopefully, there would be no need to fight, and he could simply sleep through the battle. While a part of him wanted to bear witness to this great conflict between man, dragon, and goblin, he had already seen enough fighting last night to last him for the rest of his life. All he wanted to do was to go to sleep.

"Well, you better see to the Prince," shouted Tessa from high above. "He's going to busy when Riddle gets here, and he might not have time for you after that."

Gerald nodded and turned to the double doors. Was he actually going to meet Prince or Princess Aaron? Was he dressed properly? Should he wash up first? This is what he wanted yesterday, to meet the Prince and offer to record his exploits, but he never thought it would actually happen. Or at least not like this. While he told himself that he would be the Prince's chronicler, it seemed more likely that he would simply follow them and scribe his deeds from a distance. He never expected to be summoned for a meeting with his highness.

"Are you going to take all day? "laughed Tess. "Just go in. He doesn't bite."

Spurred by Tess' urgings, Gerald enter what he recalled as the map room.

Despite its military sounding name, the map room was simply a deed office for the town. It was probably the most used area in the motte, given that the mayor conducted his business from his office in the town proper.

Gerald looked at the scroll filled shelves, and at the big map on the large central table in the middle of the room and saw no sign of the Prince. He did spy a young servant girl though, in a loose fitting button shirt and slacks. While Tess's generous endowments took up much of the slack of her armour, the clothes on this reedy girl just hung loosely from her tawny frame.

"I'll take a wine while I wait," said Gerald.

The short haired girl laughed lightly, and at once Gerald realized his mistake.

"Oh, sorry my Prince..Err Princess… umm Aaron. I just thought, the last time I saw you. Big silver armour," babbled Gerald.

Prince Aaron held up her hand. "No need to apologize. It should be I that should beg forgiveness from you."

"Eh?"

"Lady Tessa over stepped her bounds when she exchanged you for me. As a knight of the Silver Order, it is my job to sacrifice for the people of Westholding not the other way around. Sometimes Tessa and her recently departed father forget this ideal, but I cannot truly fault them for that. She's as loyal as they come, it a bit overzealous."

Gerald nodded. He wanted to add, she's as crazy as they come to, but held his tongue. Why make trouble when everything was aligned in your favour. The Prince seems happy, the army was on its way, and goblin horde was soon to be smashed. Even the dragon or wizard or whatever it was would get its comeuppance, if Tig and her gang had their way. Everything was going to be alright.

"When I heard what Tessa had done, I …I was furious with her. She and Ridley wanted to escort me back to Cottonsworth to gather a proper army, but I would have none of it. I can suffer the humiliation of being ambushed and captured by the wizard and his goblins, but I would not sacrifice this town to them."

"Wait…you know that the dragon is a wizard too?"

Aaron gave Gerald an appraising look and then smiled. "I can not prove it, but it's my suspicion. I told this to Tessa and Riddle, but they did not agree with me. You however, I suspect you have some further insight, given your ordeal and escape from the ruined tower."

"Well, dragons supposedly have incredibly heightened senses, but one can travel under this one's nose with an invisibility spell without raising its notice," he explained even though he had never casted that spell or tested Mina's claim. "Also, while Dragon's are light for its size, I noticed it could perch on walls and arches without breaking them. Which leads me to believe that it's not actually a dragon but a shape changed wizard. Specifically…"

"…Zerd…," they both said at once. They both looked at each other in surprise and chuckled.

"I heard him mention that he wanted to capture the Prince, and was going to change him, me, into a woman so he could slake his carnal lusts on," spat Aaron in disgust. He closed her eyes and shuddered at the thought. "There's only one wizard that I know who is that depraved."

"I kind of heard the same thing, except he wanted to do that to me! Luckily, the wizard got into an argument with a goblin shaman and my ….wedding night…was postponed for the time being. I think the goblin is working for…"

"…Alak Dool…," they said again simultaneously.

"Aye. Though I have no direct proof. He's the only one with the resources to gather such an army, and I always suspected he was eying these lands. I just never expected he would be so bold to attack it with the aid of Zerd," sighed the Prince. "I cannot rally the other kingdoms if I do not have proper proof, and by the time I do so, it might be too late."

"Well, I do have proof. We snagged one of his vulture chicken banners," smiled Gerald.

Aaron grinned. "You…you are more resourceful that Tessa gave you credit for. I'm just glad that you did not have to sacrifice your…maidenhood for me."

Gerald laughed. "Well, you don't have to worry about that part. I took his cursed girdle when we looted his tower. No more sex swapping for him unless he has a spare. Err…nevermind I forgot your true gender. I guess, he doesn't need this belt."

Aaron sighed."It's complicated. When I was captured, Lord Beau tore off my glued on goatee, side burns and mustache. They looked like half dead caterpillars, but they left a mark," she said as she pointed at red marks on her chin, under her nose and beneath her ears. "He then damaged my armour to reveal, err my feminine nature and convinced the wizard dragon that I was Tessa, even though my hair is a lot shorter and a different colour than hers. I'm just fortunate that it fooled the wizard enough to go after Lord Frederick and his group. Thinking they had the Prince with them."

"Well, my friends and I handled that group," he lied. While he couldn't help heaping praise on himself, he knew that Tig and gang did almost 90% of the fighting. He hardly counted his terrible singing as helping the battle despite what the gnome said.

"Tessa said you were a man shaped by circumstances, but I think there is more to you than it appears," said the Prince. "You are sharp, brave, and inquisitive, traits that this country needs more of. If we miraculously survive this, perhaps I'll commission you as an officer of the army. "

"Commission me to write a play or a ballad instead or perhaps a bit of pantomiming exposition. I'm good at that, and you are getting too serious. We'll survive this. Didn't you hear the horns, the Cottonsworth army has arrived."

Aaron shook his head, and pointed to the big map on the table. "Cottonsworth is forty leagues away. A good three or four day travel on foot. I suspect Ridley stole a horse and rode it to exhaustion to warn them, and then proceeded to ride back here in haste with their cavalry. While Cottonsworth could raise two hundred troops if needed, it only has about thirty knights and squires at a moment's notice. With this town's militia and reserves, that puts the number of defenders to roughly 110 by my count. It will be too little to resist a full assault by Zerd and Dool's goblins and giants. The best we can do is make them pay dearly for this plot of land, and hope it buys the kingdom time for a proper defense and campaign against them."

Aaron sighed with a soft look to his hard eyes. "If we fall, I will not be taken so easily again. I will not be caught off guard and watch my friends and mentors die for me. This will be my last stand, and I am glad you decided to die alongside with me."

"Last stand? Die alongside with you?"

"Aye, surely that is the reason you returned. After your escape from the tower, you could have easily left, but you came here after seeing firsthand the odds we face."

"I don't want to die here. I came here to help, not to die," said Gerald. "Look, I know you have to talk tough since you're the Prince, but people expect that from you. But, c'mon we don't have to die here. They're goblins, they won't attack until nightfall. That means we can gather everyone and march to Cottonsworth right now. We'll have an eight hour or so head start. This place doesn't have to be our tomb."

Aaron shook his head. "Some of us might escape, but there are a lot of elders and children in your village. The goblins and their wargs can ride them down even during the daylight if they leave the bailey, and let's not forget about Zerd. A simple fireball in the open against unarmed civilians would be a disaster. At least if we make our stand here, we have a chance. We have the chance to make our deaths mean something."

"I rather trust my fate on the road then stay here. At least some of us might live if we make a break for it. Couldn't we just send one group as a diversion or something, draw their attention while the rest flee? Couldn't that work."

"Possibly, but you risk everyone dying. They have more than enough mounted troops to run down both groups. But, enough of this strategic talk, my decision is made. There is no higher service than to die well for your country. We'll fight here."

Gerald could not accept this answer. He looked at the Prince's hardened face and thought it looked too serious and too grim for one so young. Actually he was roughly his age, but his steely resolve looked more suited on Inga on haggle day than on this young girl pretending to be a boy. It was clear to Gerald that he had a death wish. " Look Prince Aaron, you might think sacrificing yourself for your country is great, but there's other better things in life. I mean, I get it. You've had a tough time of things. You've been forced into playing as a man because your stupid father made a dumb deal with a crazy wizard and decided to renege on it. From talking to Tess, it sounds like everyone was kept at arms length from you except for your Silver Guard. I don't know too much about them, but judging from Tessa, those guys are a bit looney as well. I bet those high and mighty knights filled your head with all this duty and honour bullshit, but let me tell you sister err brother, the dead don't care about that. When this whole village gets crushed, no one here will care if they died good deaths or not. They just care that they no longer get to savour a Gromberry crepe, drink some of the local mead, dance the night away at the spring and autumn festivals, or even steal a kiss from a handsome lad or pretty girl. Those are what we find good in life here. We might not be lords, but even us peasants know that life is better than death, no matter the reason."

Gerald saw that his plea was not very convincing. Prince Aaron looked distressed at his plea for a moment before regaining his stone faced composure. He also appeared to let his guard down and for a second he looked like a scared girl instead of an angry young man.

What the hell. Gerald decided to go a more crass route. He would never have done so normally, but given the circumstances, he didn't think he had much to lose. "I mean, think of it this way. With Zerd exposed. You don't have to live this way anymore. You can be Princess Aaron if you want. Sure, you might be reed thin, and your face is kinda plain but we can fix that! You already have the athletic physique going for you. All we need to do is to pad your ass a bit, stuff your bra, and slap some make up on you. You might have to wear a wig for a while till your hear grows out, but pretty soon all the other Princes in the neighbouring kingdoms will be beating at your door. You want to make Westholding great again? Well go get romanced by one of our more powerful neighbours. A royal wedding is worth two dragons slain."

Aaron's previously gentle smile faded at Gerald's prodding. "I am a Silver Guard, and always will be a Silver Guard regardless of my gender. I curse my father for many things, but not for placing me in this order. I will live as a knight and die as a knight. I care not for the gentler pleasures.."

Gerald was tired of this girl playing as a soldier. This wasn't a game, people were going to die. He wasn't sure why, but he saw an opportunity and took it. He scooped up the Princess by the waist and kissed her deeply square on the lips. She was shocked at first, unsure of what to do, but quickly recovered and punched him square in the gut, dropping him to his knees in one blow.

"Worth…worth it," he sputtered and then looked up at a very angry Prince. "Look….sorry. I just…wanted …to … show you that …whatever you say you are…you're still a girl….damn that sounds sexist now that I say it, but you know what I mean. You can't deny your nature, err unless you're like one of those lady boys in Lower Lueders that Armondo was talking about…If so…I'm sorry that I assumed your gen.. "

"You wanted to sway me with a kiss? Are you daft? I'm not some Princess from some stupid fairy tale. And you kiss like a dog. Tessa kisses better than you."

"GUARDS! I WANT THIS MAN OUT OF MY SIGHT AND FLOGGED!" shouted Prince Aaron. He then turned to the still reeling Gerald. "Any good will you might have gained from your heroism has now been squandered. You dare too much and for that you will…"

The double doors were flung open, and Lady Tessa marched in. Instead of being followed by the two Green boys, which were probably more than enough to handle Gerald, roughly six knights in grey armour with Cottonsworth tabards marched behind her. "Seize them both!" Tessa ordered in her cold bitch voice.

"What is the meaning of this," declared the Prince.

"Oh no, not again," moaned Gerald.

"Bind them and gag them. Do not listen to their lies," ordered Tessa as the knights closed in. Aaron reached for something balancing on the map table, but was quickly surrounded and was forced to back off as the knights swords encircled her with their already drawn swords. Even weaponless, she still kicked and punched but was eventually shackled and gagged forcefully. Daggers practically flew out of her eyes at Tessa.

Gerald on the other hand submitted meekly, still reeling from the punch to his gut. Damn the Prince punches hard.

"Do not harm them if you value your lives," ordered Tessa. "They have information about Lord Frederick that must be extracted. Take them to the Beauregard manor and give this letter to the Seneschal. He will handle this if I do not survive the siege."

Still struggling and twisting, Aaron was dragged while Gerald was escorted to a supply wagon with six mounted knights ready as an escort. It was an armoured carriage, that was more suited for transporting supplies than passengers, and the pair had to duck to fit in. Aaron screamed into her gag, while Gerald simply accepted it. Getting gagged by Lady Tessa was old hat to him. As the pair's shackles were attached to iron rings on the wagon walls.

Lady Tessa ducked into the cart.

"I'm sorry I have to do this my Prince, " apologized Tess with her soft voice. "But I can't have you die on my watch. I will personally lead the defense and Sir Ridley will play your part to rally the troops here. We can't have you seen fleeing, but we also can't have you dying. I trust you will gather the kingdom's army to repel this invasion if we fail, and I trust you will rebuild the Silver Order. If I survive, you can mete out any punishment you see fit, but know that I do this because of duty to the Kingdom and my love for you," she said bowing reverently to the shackled and seething Prince.

"Whmm abmm mm? Whm am I a Prmsomm?" mumbled Gerald through his gag.

"I am sorry once again Gerald. You do not deserve this, but you know our Prince's secret. You do not deserve to be slain like a dog, but I can't let you roam free either with the knowledge you possess. Your friends will be dealt with, while I have left instructions to father's man that you are to be imprisoned …for life. He'll treat you well though, and in time I hope you will forgive me," she said. Tessa then leaned in and kissed Gerald softly on the cheek. "Farewell. May I meet you in the next life and serve you both better."

The wagon was then locked down, and slowly began rolling out of the bailey. Gerald could hear villagers shout in confusion and some even questioned why this wagon was leaving with six knights as an escort. One of the knights, or at least Gerald thought it was a knight due to his unfamiliar and gruff voice, said that there were wargs patrolling the road, and they only didn't attack because they were outnumbered. He question the wisdom of sending a smaller detachment through the same road. Tess rebuked him, saying the cargo was still safer on the road than here, and that was the end of the argument.

"Damn, that's one crazy bitch," thought Gerald to himself as the drawbridge was lowered and their small convoy rode towards Cottonsworth, wargs or no wargs.


	16. Chapter 16

_It's not so bad,_ thought Gerald.

Sure his hands were manacled, but at least they weren't dicks about it and chained them behind his back. Though uncomfortable, they were linked to an iron ring above him. There could be worse ways to be chained.

As for his feet, they were shackled at the ankles but at least there was enough slack on them to stretch and perhaps walk. He didn't think he could run in them, but they didn't bite into his skin which was always a plus.

The accommodations were admittedly cramp. The wagon in which he was chained to had a low roof, and he had to sit in a reclining position. He could not lie down, due partially to his arms chained above his head, and because of the amount of boxes and crates packed into the wagon. Gerald guessed that when Sir Ridley arrived he had planned to resupply Daggerhall, and did not quite expect the lunacy of Tessa. Given the spaciousness of his accommodations, Gerald did not mind. At the very least, sitting across from him with the exact same gag and manacle gear was Prince Aaron, and who gets to ride in a wagon with royalty these days?

Prince Aaron thrashed about, straining and grunting against her bounds. Gerald guessed her wrists and ankles were all probably bruised or blistered by now. She glared like a wild animal attempting to escape a snare before the hunter returned. Still, under the small beams of light that escaped the overhead cracks, Gerald thought she had a kind of tomboy charm. At first he didn't think she had any breasts, but under her exertions against the iron that bound her, he could see that some sort of heavy cloth binding was unravelling around her chest. It looked very uncomfortable, but he guessed they were used to press her breasts to her body. Also, while Gerald never had an eye for the over muscled women, Prince Aaron had a more sprinter or a gymnast body, than let's say…Ceto's body. Everyone one of her muscles seemed well defined and not overly large like that of the half orc's. She resembled a great mountain cat wound up and ready to pounce out of her imprisonment.

While the prospects of spending life under lock and key did not seem pleasant to Gerald, it could be much worse. Tessa said he would be treated well, and he hoped that she was a woman of her word. He didn't expect a banquet every day and a small apartment at Beauregard's manor, but a clean room, and three square meals a day was better than he had now. It would also give him time to ink his next ballad or tale, so at least it would keep him from boredom. The tale of the Lilac knight he think he will call it, whether it be a horror story about a crazy power mad woman knight or an uplifting tale of a girl rising above her circumstances, depends on how well he would be treated in prison. At the very least though, being in prison for life meant that he at least would be alive. Given Prince Aaron's assessment of Daggerhall's position and that of its enemies, the outlook was grim for his town.

Sure Gerald wanted to save them, and he even tried, coming back to town to lend whatever aid he could, but he gave his best, and fate simply laughed at him and threw him in a wagon riding off into the sunset.

As Gerald contemplated his fate, his fellow prisoner had finally stopped thrashing in her bonds. Her eyes still screamed violence, but she leaned on the wagon opposite him in a restless manner.

"Enjmy thm trmp," said Gerald. After having been gagged for so long he was getting used to it.

Aaron relaxed a bit, and her eyes seemed more focus. Gerald wasn't sure if it was the sound of his muffled voice, or if she finally accepted her fate. She simply slid down the wall a little, and raised her long lean legs upwards, stretching her feet next to Gerald's face. She then began to rub her feet across his face, squashing his nose and poking his cheeks in the process.

Gerald wasn't sure whether to be turned on, or repulsed by her actions, but he was powerless to stop her. Even when he grew tired of her strange foot massage, he couldn't knock her legs out of the way with his own legs, she was that much stronger than him. Also, it seemed every time the wagon hit a bump, Aaron's foot seemed to be kicking him in the face.

Gerald wasn't sure what the whole point to this was, until finally the Prince's foot seem to snag on a piece of his gag. After several painful tugs, the finally gag was pulled off of his mouth, releasing a torrent of drool down his chin.

"Uggh, now that was a bit sloppy," said Gerald as the Prince's foot finally left his face.

"Mm Nmxt. Mm Nmxt," said Aaron under her gag, bending her knees as she pointed at her face.

"Oh, you want me to do the same?" guessed Gerald. "Well, okay then."

Gerald attempted to do the same for the Prince, but his leg strength was nowhere as strong as hers. He eventually rested his foot on her shoulder in between his attempts, and even kicked her in the face a few times to pay her back from the punishment she had meted out on him. Finally after a few minutes, he managed to hook her gag with his seemingly metal boot and worked it over her lower lip.

"Finally," she gasped as she spat away her saliva. "Now we can plan to get out of here."

Gerald wasn't sure what type of planning would help, but humored her anyways. "Well, I'm all ears."

Aaron shifted her body angling her feet towards the crates. She then started to kick and flip the boxes until they opened or break. "Hurry, we might find something useful inside."

Gerald wasn't that keen on breaking these boxes. He was still pretty mad at the way he had been treated, by both the Prince and Lady Tessa. He simply retracted his legs in front of him forming a crude shield.

"Kick open the boxes, now!" ordered Prince Aaron.

"Hey, you're not the boss of me. You're just another prisoner. Besides, your attack dog Tessa and yourself have treated me like crap and for what, wanting to save the villagers instead of sacrificing them because you have daddy issues and need to prove yourself. At least Tessa is doing this under a warp desire to save you. I think I might prefer being a prisoner than helping you in this escape attempt."

Prince Aaron regarded him coolly. "I might be a prisoner, but I'm still a Prince. When we reach Beauregard Manor, I'll order the Seneschal to have you beaten."

"For what? Not helping you escape. Judging by how you are locked up here with me, and Lady Tessa gets to go out in a blaze of glory, I think we know who wears the pants in this relationship," smirked Gerald.

The Prince looked ready to explode, but instead she simply closed her eyes and appeared to count backwards to herself. "I am sorry for my past behaviour. If I was overzealous, it was because of my love for my kingdom. I truly believe that we cannot move the villagers to a safe spot due to the enemy's superior number of cavalry. At the very least, help me free myself for I can better serve my kingdom with a blade in hand rather than in a cell waiting out this war."

Gerald did not think the Prince would apologize, or at least give it in a snide or sarcastic way. He sighed and against his better judgement he began to kick the boxes over as well. It was a bad idea though. He guessed that when the guards outside found out that they wouldn't be that keen either, and he could almost feel their slaps and punches. However when Aaron knocked over a box of what looked like jerky Gerald began to follow her lead in earnest. After flipping some of that jerky into his mouth at first.

" ..munch…what are..munch..munch…we looking for?" asked Gerald. The jerky was dry and bland, but tasted so good right now. The last meal he had was with Mina, and that was last night. Since then he had hiked through a forest, got chased by wolves, and had now spent over an hour chained in a wagon.

"Find anything that might let us escape these chains. An iron bar, a jar of grease, any sort of tool."

Gerald raised a dubious eyebrow. He doubted any of that would be found in this wagon. He only continued to flip over boxes with his feet to humour the Prince.

"So, why weren't you armed or armored when Sir Ridley's men came."

"My armour was heavily damaged when I was captured, and Sir Beauregard discarded my breast plate to deceive Zerd. As it was getting repaired, I decided to have my blade sharpened as well. Tessa was against me fighting here from the beginning, and I guessed she saw an opportunity and took it. Though I suspected she would have had me imprisoned even if I had my armour on. She would just have to make up a bigger lie to convince the men I wasn't the Prince."

"Hmm, if they saw you in Silver Armour, do you think you can convince them that you are who you claim to be?"

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"Well, this armour I'm wearing is Tessa's and as you can see, there's no boob plate. She said its glimmered or something, and it can change its appearance. If I can slip this off, and you put it on, do you think you can order the guard to free us?"

"Well, they've already seen that I'm a woman so I doubt they would think of me as their Prince, even with my Royal armour on. Also, I believe Tessa's armour is GLAMMERED, not glimmered. To use its power you would need to know its command phrase. Do you have that?"

"Hells, I don't. What good is it then?"

"Well, if you can find a powerful wizard, he could divine it for you. Same with a powerful bard."

"Eh? I am a bard…oh….a powerful one..hah haha."

Aaron's grim face broke out in a smile, and he could see her charm shine through. She really could look beautiful if she just cleaned up a bit and decided to smile more.

As Gerald admired his fellow's prisoners face, one of the more fancy boxes started to glow. The two prisoners looked at each other nervously before Aaron's foot shot out and smashed it. Instead of more provisions tumbling out, a glowing sword in a fancy gold black scabbard rolled out. "That's a bit fancy for a box isn't it?" said Gerald.

"That's the dragonsword of Koryis," said Aaron. "Or at least I think it is. We requested it from the main church when we initially heard of the dragon attacks. I didn't think they would actually ship it to us. "

"Is it a dragon slaying sword or something?"

"Something like that, it is obviously enchanted, but it has the knack for detecting them when they are close by. A sort of divining stick for dragons."

Gerald eyed the blade again. While still covered by its fine scabbard, he saw the open palm symbol of Koryis as well as two intertwined dragons on its handle. More importantly he noticed the source of the blade's glow, a glowing rock in the middle of it's pommel. "Hey, that's a dragonstone. That's how the blade knows when there's a dragon nearby. It has a dragonstone in it."

"Eh? What's that."

"Just as I said, it's a stone that glows when a dragon is nearby. A skilled user can also determine the dragon's species and even mood if he examines it close enough."

"So...why is it glowing now."

As the two puzzled over the glowing sword, a long howl could be heard even through the walls of the armoured wagon. That in itself was enough to give Gerald's nightmares of being chased through the forest by wargs last night, but at least he was safe now and it was only one wolf.

Then a second howl joined the first, and then a third, and a fourth, and …..


	17. Chapter 17

Gerald's blood ran cold as he heard the baying of the wolves. Terrible memories of his flight through the forest being pursued by the wargs danced in his head. It was just like last night, except he got was beaten up and bound after the wolves instead of before the wolves chased him down.

As he began to panic, Gerald heard the Knights outside shouting orders to each other. He couldn't make it out exactly, but he thought they said something to the effect of close ranks,watch the flanks, stay on course, followed by horrible screaming.

Prince Aaron in the meantime began to yank furiously at the overhead chains. She twirled herself so her back was facing Gerald, then bracing her bound legs against the wall, and then began a series of jolting yanks. The Prince's face grimaced with pain as every muscle in her tawny body strained against the metal loop.

"That ain't gonna work," sighed Gerald. "It's never going to…."

*CREAK*

Gerald did a second take as the iron ring holding the Prince was yanked a quarter inch from the wall. Buoyed by her success the Prince yanked harder against the chain, but seemed to make no more progress with it.

Seeing as how he could not match the effort of the Prince, Gerald attempted to bolster her efforts with a song.

"You got the strength!"

"You got the power!"

"After all the dragon's done, you've never walked you've never run, you're a Prince!"

"You've got the moves, you know the…"

"STOP IT!" shouted Aaron after giving another mighty yank. "You're terrible at this! You're the worse bard I've ever…"

The Prince stopped when she realized that in her anger at Gerald's horrible song, she had yanked the iron ring out of the wall, creating a small hole in the process. Surprised at her success, she quickly grabbed Gerald's chains and did the same with another burst of strength.

"Okay, now break our manacles," said Gerald holding out his hands.

Aaron shook her head still gasping for breath, "The rings are iron, meant mainly to hold straps so the cargo won't bounce around the wagon. These manacles are forged steel, they won't break so easy."

Gerald frowned, he thought she could at least try. As Aaron started fumbling around the smashed boxes, Gerald peaked outside the hole in the wagon next to him and saw two Knights fighting a half dozen warg riders in a running battle. The goblins would throw spears at the Knights, but they mostly missed while the Knights simply attempted to weather their attacks. Gerald didn't think the goblins were terribly accurate, especially compared to Armondo and his mounted great bow shot earlier, but he guessed that might have been due to the sun effecting their vision. Whatever the reason, the goblins seemed to grow tired of missing and one of the great wargs simply broke rank and charged directly towards a Knight. The Knight saw this and readied his shield even stabbing the goblin in the process, but the warg simply leapt at him, bowling him and his horse over in a flurry of armour, fur, and blood.

Given his limited scope, Gerald lost sight of the melee, and wasn't sure if the warrior was able to survive the attack, or if he was being ripped apart into wolf kibble, but the other Knight had enough of this.

"Retreat, retreat!" the remaining Knight shouted as he urged his mount onwards.

While the Knight and his mount were both armoured, they had no trouble pulling ahead of the wolves. Gerald remembered that he was able to out pace them last night as well, and only through superior numbers and the thick underbrush were they able to catch up to him.

"Coward," spat the Prince as she eyed the scene behind Gerald.

Gerald glanced back and saw that even though her wrists were still shackled she now had the Dragonsword in hand, and it was glowing brighter than ever.

"If the wizard is the dragon, why is the sword glowing?" asked Gerald. Tig had disagreed with him earlier, but he trusted Mina's take on the situation.

Aaron shrugged, as she began slamming her shoulder into the tailgate of the wagon. "Maybe…. we were wrong….. about the wizard…though I doubt that….Or maybe the fake dragon …attracted a real dragon…... To defend its territory or something,"said Aaron between shoulder slams.

Gerald didn't like the response. A real dragon in the area? A fake dragon was bad enough, but a goblin army, a crazy Knight, and now a real dragon mixed into this mess? It was too much.

As Gerald considered the real possibility of another dragon, Aaron finally crashed through the tailgate of the wagon. It didn't crack or splinter, but simply flew off its hinges from the Prince's strength. Gerald was surprised at how close the goblins were behind them. He could see four giving chase, while a fifth was engaged in a swinging match with one of the remaining Knights. As the door flew off, one of the goblins was taken by surprise, and the door hit him and his warg square in the face, sending both tumbling in a cloud of dust.

"Quick, throw out the remaining boxes to slow the goblins down," she ordered. While her hands were holding Dragonsword, she managed to kick a few of the open bundles of food out the gate. One of the goblins nearest the wagon saw an opportunity and made a daring jump towards the open gate. It stabbed at Aaron with a jagged knife, but the Prince coolly hopped back. While her feet was still shackled, Aaron simply grasped one of the top beams of the wagon, lifted herself up, before kicking the goblin square in the chest with both her legs. Sending the shocked creature rolling and under the small horde of wargs behind them.

After witnessing the spurt of violence, Gerald did as he was told, and managed to drag a few of the larger boxes to the back before flipping them out towards some goblins. He initially thought Aaron wanted him to nail the goblins with the boxes, but it quickly became evident to him that after each box thrown out, one or two of the goblins would break off the chase to examine their contents. Gerald despaired after one particular box seemed to spill out silver coins, but fortunately it seemed to some all the goblins to it. Sighing and with great regret, he fished out his gold, payment from last night's adventure and threw that out as well, scattering it along the path and the tall grass on the road side. The rest of the goblins stopped as they scattered behind them, greedily picked through Gerald's treasure.

"It's working..It's working…." shouted the Prince.

No sooner had he said this, the cart hit a big bump. Gerald lurched to the side and grabbed Aaron, who in turn slammed into the crouched wall. A second later the entire wagon seemed to lean sideways before the whole thing was sent careening off the path, and skidded violently into a field.

Gerald thought his neck was going to snap in the crash, but fortunately he landed and rolled on top of the Prince, who proved to be much softer than she looked.

"Off of me!" she grunted as she pushed him away. Gerald took a straight arm to the face, but he was still too woozy from the crash and simply collapsed onto her again. It took a few tries and punches though, as they were tangled together, but eventually she threw him aside and limped to the open gate, with her shackled legs and blade in hand. Gerald was still shaky but managed to crawl after her and fall out of the cart onto his face.

"Back in the wagon, prisoner," warned a mounted Knight with a crossbow aimed at Aaron. Two more of the mounted warriors flanked him, one with blade and shield, the other with a lance aimed at them. All of them had bloody wounds, but it did not seem to deter them. Gerald thought they had all fled, but it appeared these three were made of sterner stuff.

The Prince seethed at her treatment but remained silent. Even with a sword, she could do little against armoured, mounted, and most importantly unfettered opponents.

"Wait…wait..gentlemen…"there's been a misunderstanding, gasped Gerald as he scrambled onto his feet. His first attempt ended disastrously as he fell on his face again due to his leg irons, but he managed to brace himself against the wagon on his second attempt as he pulled himself up.

"The goblins will be done squabbling over rations and coins soon. You two will be trussed up and tossed behind our horses as we make our way to Beauregard manor. Struggle and we will leave you to the goblins. Fight and I'll shoot you myself. Resist us at your peril," warned crossbow Knight.

"Hold on there," said Gerald. "You don't want to do that. That's no way to treat your Prince."

Aaron shot him a 'shut up, don't give up my secret' look, but Gerald gave him a ' it's fine' wave, even though he wasn't exactly sure what he was doing.

"Prince? You expect us to believe you're the Prince! HAH!" laughed sword and shield Knight. "I've seen the Prince, he's like a snake, all muscle and sinew and ready to pounce at the drop of a hat. You...you remind me of porridge, with some berries thrown on top."

Gerald ignored the unflattering comparison as he shook his head, "No, no. I won't be that presumptuous. I'm not the Prince, I'm the newest member of the Silver Guard. You should be able to tell by my armour."

One of the wagon teamsters shuffled at them from the front of the ruined wagon, his head bleeding profusely. He seemed to have heard some of the conversation and pointed at Gerald. "Sorry about that, a goblin fell under the front wheel. Wait, I know him, he's the local bard. Amusing fellow though he can't sing, but he can dance, and mime a little."

Gerald took a deep breath. "Of course I am, the Prince knighted me in the woods for my heroism not my entertainment value. In fact the Prince is right here," he said as he pointed at Aaron.

The Knights paused before they burst into the laughter. Prince Aaron grew red with shame, her secret finally revealed. Even if the Knights didn't believe Gerald, she shrank in humiliation at their attention. This was the worse moment of her life, to face the truth and be laughed at. Gerald half expected her to curl into a ball or more likely given his previous experience with her, violently lash out at him, taking his head with the brightly glowing blade she still held.

"No, no, I speak the truth," said Gerald as he edged away from the sword wielding Prince. "Aaron…was cursed to appear as a woman. You've all heard of the tale of Zerd and how he pined for his Princess for decades now. Well that crazy perverted wizard snapped and attacked us outside of Daggerhall. He used his magic to befuddle Tessa and placed a magical girdle on Prince Aaron, transforming him into this boyish maiden you see before you."

Again the Knights paused before bursting into laughter, oblivious to the goblins which were out of sight nearby.

"That story is worse than yer singing," said the Teamster.

"It's true. As the newest member of the Silver Guard, I wrested the girdle away from her before who knows what other magic it could inflict," said Gerald. "If you don't believe me, I have it on me. I was able to smuggle it away before Lady Tessa could find it. I was hoping to find a wizard to reverse its magic."

Crossbow Knight was not amused."I should just shoot you right here," he warned. "Your story makes no sense. If the wizard was able to get close to the Prince, why didn't he simply charm her with his magics, put her under her thrall or something. And if you had a magic belt that could change genders, why don't you just put it on her again and change her back."

"It's cursed that's why. It wouldn't be much of a cursed item if it could be so easily reversed. It changes a person gender once, and that's it," he said smugly, though in reality he had no idea if that was the way it worked or not. "If you don't believe me, I have the belt on me. Put it on if you dare."

"I'm going to kill you," whispered Aaron red with shame.

The Knights didn't seem to believe any of Gerald's story, but the bard poured in his heart and soul and every story teller trick he had to make it seem plausible if not believable. "Help me out here…I'm dying out here…" he whispered to Aaron.

"This bard, no matter how oafish he looks, speaks the truth," finally declared Aaron, in a commanding tone that would have put to shame Tessa's best imperious voice. "I was the Prince Aaron, but now I am the Princess Aaron. The wizard Zerd did this to me."

"Gawds…that sounded stupid," she whispered back to Gerald.

Lance Knight scratched his head. "You know, I've never seen the Prince up close but I always thought he kinda looked a bit…ummm effeminate. Looking at this woman right now, well , yeah I can see the resemblance. She looks like the Prince except without the caterpillar mustache, those awful side burns, and that peach fuzz on his face."

Aaron pouted at that comment, Gerald could see that she was proud of her fake facial hair.

The other Knights and the Teamster laughed except Crossbow knight. "Enough of this, Trevor, Smallhill, truss those two tightly and throw them on our horses. Ed you can ride with me. We're getting out of here."

"Listen, you're making a big mistake here," said Gerald as his manacled hands dug into his side pouch. "Look I have the girdle here, if you don't believe me, put it on."

Gerald and the Crossbow Knight locked gazes. For a second, he thought he was going to get a bolt straight through the neck, but finally the knight rode up to Gerald and snatched the belt away from him. "This is stupid. He's just trying to delay us till his goblin friends catch up," he said as he wrapped it around his waist. "There's no way that…..what…oh my gawd….what's happening...nooooo...it's gone...noooo...my wife is going to kill me….."

The other knights stared dumbfounded as Crossbow Knight became Crossbow Lady Knight. She looked relatively the same, but she suddenly set down her crossbow as she grasped her chest, then her crotch, her face, then her hips, and finally her crotch again. Her facial features did not change much, but her voice did go a half octave higher. Gerald seized the advantage and simply bowed to the Prince before Crossbow Lady Knight decided to shoot him in revenge.

"Long live Princess Aaron!" Gerald shouted.

The others dismounted and shouted the same two more times. Even Crossbow Lady Knight did the same, though she was still confused about her new gender orientation.

"Err, thank you," whispered Aaron. "That was an easier transition than I thought. I might not have you executed after all."

"No worries," said Gerald unsure if she was joking or not about the execution. "Now, let's just find the keys to these manacles and get out of here."

"Errr…my partner had the keys, I'm not sure where he ended up after the cart crash," said Ed the Teamster nervously.

"Oh, that's fine, we'll just head to Cottonsworth and get a blacksmith to remove them there," said Gerald. "We better hurry if we want to keep ahead of the goblins."

"Nay. We ride back to Daggerhall. Defeat the goblins, and confront Tessa," said Aaron in her commanding voice. The other knights bowed and agreed with her without question.

"Now wait a minute, " protested Gerald. "These three can fight, Ed might be able to fight, but you and I definitely can't fight in these manacles. Also, there's a small horde of warg riders between us and the town. What use are we if …."

"Oh hey Gerard. I thought I smelled you nearby."

"Mina?"

Gerald eyes grew wide as he scanned around him. Out of the tall grass, strode the short cloaked girl with a big overflowing bag of silver and gold underneath her arms. Gerald guessed her dwarven nose must have picked up his scent.

He ran and hugged her, and she hugged him back. It had been only a half a day but he truly missed her. It had also been a while since he'd seen a friendly face, or at least a person that didn't punch, kick, or threaten violence on him.

After awhile the pair parted awkwardly. He wanted to continue, but not sure how. Should he hug her again? Steal a kiss? She seemed all smiles at him, but what should he...

Gerald felt a forceful shove from behind. "Kiss her already," said Aaron as Gerald was sent towards towards the dwarven girl. "I've been a man long enough to tell when a girl wants a kiss."

With such a royal command, Gerald couldn't help himself and kissed Mina. He didn't care if she was a dwarf, and apparently she didn't care if he was a human as she eagerly returned his affection.

" What are you doing here? It's dangerous, there's goblins around!" he said at last after their exchange.

Mina shrugged."Oh yeah, those guys. Well, I chased them and their doggies away, and found all this treasure they were gathering. Both silver coins and bars," she smiled. Gerald noted at how her large saucer eyes seemed to glow at the mention of the word treasure, and he also noted that the gold was probably his but he would bring that up later.

"As for what I'm doing here….well l was worried about you, and despite what I said earlier, I decided to return. Maybe I can help after all, or at least I can try. As I was flying back, I saw your friends being chased by the goblins. I was about to throw down a fog spell, but it seems you were able to lose them with those crates. So, umm, aren't you going to introduce me to your friends, and ummm…why are you shackled."


	18. Chapter 18

"Can you melt these shackles like you did to those bars back in the tower, Mina?" asked Gerald as he held up his chains.

Mina furrowed her forehead as she examined them, and then she shook her head. "The acid will splash too much, I can't safely break them that way, but I can melt them away using fire."

"Really? Wonderful! Hey Aaron, Mina says she can remove our shackles!" shouted Gerald. Prince Aaron and her new knights were still gathering supplies from the wagon, but hobbled over to the pair at the news.

Mina made a low hum followed by a soft whistle, and the small fiery orb escaped her satchel and floated before her. "This will hurt a lot less than the acid, but it will burn your skin, most likely leaving a scar unless you want the manacle on and simply the chain melted through."

Gerald had second thoughts or at least considered placing some leather padding inside his shackle but Aaron thrust her manacle towards the small orb, fearless as normal.

"Begin with me," she commanded. "I want it all off."

The fiery orb bobbed a bit before hovering close to the lock on her left hand, it then squeezed into the key hole, like the ball of flaming gas that it was, and the whole manacle grew red and then white hot. Gerald winced, imagining the Prince's wrist was becoming charred black, but she stood there calmly until the orb flew out of the lock as the manacle fell off her undamaged hand.

"How..how did you do that?" asked Gerald in surprise.

Aaron held up one of her fingers, showing off an ornate ring and then pointed to a similar ring on Gerald's hand. "You don't fight a fire breathing dragon without being somewhat prepared."

After Mina's orb burned out Aaron's locks and then Gerald's, the Prince bowed to the Sorceress. "Thank you, I was wondering if I would ever be able to wield a sword or walk properly again, Lady …."

Mina seemed flustered by the attention and curtsied properly in return. "It's Mina von Custeinson."

"Of the Order of the Hound? "

"It's actually the Order of the Husky but some people do call them the Hound, and yes, my branch is from the Freeholds. Though I'm not a member, most of my family are, including my mother Kitahria."

Aaron grew excited.

Gerald rolled his eyes. He had heard all this fawning before from Tig. Like how famous can these Custeinsons be if he had never heard of them. If they were that important or something, there should be a story written about their great crusade or something.

Aaron kneeled before Mina. "It is indeed a great honour to meet the daughter of the Knight Commander of the Order of the Husky. You must have many exciting tales growing up under her tutelage. "

"Not really. It's not as exciting as you think,"shrugged Mina, it seemed the attention was wearing on her as well.

"Really? I thought you might have a tale or two about the brood of dragons that she had tamed," asked Aaron as Crossbow Lady Knight helped strap her breastplate and pauldrons on that were scavenged from one of her recently slain comrades.

Mina seemed uncomfortable with the subject which made perfect sense to Gerald. He didn't know anything about that dog club, but he did know that dragons did not like dwarves on account of both groups constantly stealing each other's treasures. Seeing how the already soft spoken Mina shirked from Aaron's questions, Gerald knew that he had to move in and put a halt to this.

"Hey, let's leave the childhood flashbacks for another time. We have like a town to save , remember?"

"Aye, forgive me for my lapse," she said. With both hands now freed she made a brief set of short controlled hand gestures, and a magnificent white Destrier appeared out of thin air. The Prince buckled the rest of her armour and easily mounted the beast, before she pointed the fiercely glowing Dragonsword skyward.

"Corsair…" whispered the Knights in reverent tones. Aaron's ability to summon her paladin mount dispelled any doubts of her legitimacy as the Princess.

Mina shook her head. "I've used up my mount spells earlier for Ceto and Armondo. I could fly us there, but …." She leaned in and whispered. "I know you won't be afraid since you know what I am, but I'm afraid Aaron and her Knights would probably either flee or attack me in a panic."

Gerald had scavenged a mace, but raised his hands up in a dramatic fashion. "Oh well, I guess we'll walk. We'll catch up to the rest of you later. I hope you save some goblins for us when we get there," he said with feigned disappointment.

"Don't worry my lord and lady," said Ed the Teamster as he led two big draft horses towards them. "These two took some scrapes when the wagon flipped but they're tough colts. They won't be as fast as Corsair and the other warhorses on a charge, but they'll keep up well enough otherwise. I can ride one while you two ride the other."

"Err, geeze thanks Ed," grumbled Gerald. "You're a real pal."

Without saddles and stirrups, the big horses were hard to control. Ed had placed a simple blanket on their backs and attached a rope to the horse's bit to form a crude reign but still Gerald fell a few times in his laughable attempt to control it. Mina grew tired and simply took the rope and her superior equestrian skills shone through, much to the relief of Gerald. While he was embarrassed at having Mina drive, at least he didn't have to land on his ass a few more times.

After the small band was armed, armoured, and mounted, Aaron led them at a brisk cantor back to Daggerhall.

Which wasn't a moment too soon. As the sun fell over the western hills, several large plumes of smoke could be seen coming from the town. Aaron resisted the urge to quicken their pace, knowing their mounts had to be fresh for the upcoming battle, and given their running battle with the wargs earlier she did not want to push their limits.

"Say Mina. What happened to those wargs and goblins anyways?" asked Gerald. The last he saw of them they were looting his treasure, it seemed odd for them to just run away and drop their stuff. Not that Mina couldn't summon some magic to do that, but it seemed unlikely given her vow of non violence.

"I flew down low at them and they fled. I'm at the age where I've just begun to master my aura, but there was no need to. They saw me and ran away," she said in self-conscious voice.

Gerald pictured in his mind a flying dwarf with a big nose diving down at some goblins, it was more humorous than terrifying, but who knows if you are a goblin you might be scared witless. Dwarves and goblins were known to have had legendary wars between their races, and the goblins were often on the short end of the stick. It seemed plausible that a flying dwarf would panic them. After all, dwarves are normally terrestrial creatures, to encounter one that could break the third dimension and fly at them would truly be a dreadful sight to behold. Now the aura she was talking about on the other hand, well he wasn't quite sure what that meant, but assumed it was either a dwarf thing or a sorceress thing. Or perhaps she met aroma. While Mina did smell slightly of charcoal, probably because of the incense used in her magical rituals, he didn't think she smelled that bad. Actually it was kind of exotic and pleasant.

After another few miles at their current canter, the group rounded a hill and saw that the attack on Daggerhall had already begun. Any pretense that this was simply a humanoid raid was gone as a black turkey vulture banner was raised before them. The goblin horde seemed to have committed their giants early in an attempt to overrun the defenders resulting in about a dozen of them slain, killed by mass volleys of arrows and spears, before they could even reach the bailey. From this distance it appeared that they were caught and ambushed in the town's alleys, or fell victim to pits and snares in front of the moat and shredded by the defender's missile fire. No matter how crazy Lady Tessa was, at least she could plan a good defense.

The rest of the horde seemed to ignore the plight of the giants and pushed onwards behind them. The normally stealthy bugbears were hefting large spiked logs on their shoulders, and Gerald guessed that they were going to be used as crude bridges to breach the bailey. He also noted that there were a lot more than the five hundred that Armondo had spotted. From a quick count, it seemed closer to three thousand. Was this more magic, or were more reinforcements pouring from the north?

Aaron studied the situation and quickly deduced a plan.

"There may only be six of us, but we have the element of surprise and the speed and power of cavalry on our side. We'll strike at their rear archer ranks while their attention is focused on the town, and ride straight through over them so we can reinforce the defenders. We just have to wait for the right moment to attack, so be patient."

Crossbow Lady Knight, Sir Trevor, Sir Smallhill, and Ed the Teamster nodded in unison and readied themselves for the coming assault. They seemed relaxed and even joked a bit about what to call Crossbow, whose original name appeared to have been Thomas, with names ranging from Tammy to Tabitha to Scarecrow.

Gerald liked Scarecrow, but more importantly he didn't particularly like the plan. There was the matter of what they were going to do when they reach the defenders. Jump over the moat and scale the wall? Corsair could probably leap over the whole mess, but not everyone had a big magical horse. Mina could always change into a dwarf and fly over, but he still wasn't quite clear on the how dwarves could fly concept or how well she could carry him. She seemed strong but not that strong. Did dwarves gain strength in flight?

As he contemplated Aaron's plan, a great dark red form swooped from the clouds and rained lightning from its claws down on the village. A few villagers shot at it with their bows but they either missed or their shots simply bounced of the creature's armour. Several bolts of electricity struck the southern wall of the bailey, setting fires as the walls buckled and sagged under the attack. The form then spread its great leathery wings and a shower of minute meteors rained down from it, pelting and damaging the area further, before the beast soared into the clouds once more.

"We're going to need to find an opportunity to take him out," swore the Prince as he gripped his blade.

War drums and horns, of the more primitive and thundering type, sounded and the goblin horde once again was on the move. They streamed into town, this time with crude mantlets, mobile wooden shields, to cover them from the defender's missile fire. All the while their archers and a few giants loosed arrows and boulders of their own at the defenders, crushing and impaling them to keep them honest.

As the battle was joined at the southern wall, the bugbears marched through the arrow fire with their great logs. A few broke ranks to run forward under the protection of the mantlets as they drove big stakes into the ground near the moat. With that accomplished, the bugbears seemed to spur themselves with some war chants, before running up, driving the end of the log into the stakes, and then pushing them up and over so they can land on top of the moat walls. Several teams of the bugbears failed miserably, either having the log fall back on their comrades or having the log tumble into the moat, but two did manage to spike their bridges into the bailey.

Gerald wondered why the giants didn't do that, but when he watched one fumbling with a club, and swatting his own fellow in the head with it, he had a pretty good guess.

With a breach, and several crude bridges laid, the goblins surged once again into the breach. It looked like butcher's work at the southern portion of the bailey as goblins streamed over the bridge to be met by the few knights and militia of Daggerhall. While the defenders bravely defended the breach, the goblins seemed endless and they began to push through them.

"Now?" asked Sir Smallhill impatiently. Even Gerald could see that the battle was about to be lost.

The Prince remained stoic and simply stared at the battle.

As the goblin attack verged on overwhelming the defenders, the horde suddenly seemed to fall back onto itself. From his vantage point on the hill, Gerald spotted some activity at the inn. He could see goblins suddenly falling on their face, or slumping for no reason near the logs even behind the mantlets. It might have been an archer from the walls, but he doubted it. He couldn't make out what was happening, but it seemed to aggravate the goblins badly, resulting in a troop of twenty of them storming the tavern. The goblins disappeared inside with blades drawn, before running out in terror with half their number later.

"Looks like Ceto and Armondo are giving a good of account of themselves," said Mina as she watched the battle, shading her eyes with her palm.

Gerald did a double take at the inn and still couldn't see the half orcs. He knew dwarves had superior dark vision but he didn't know that they could see long distances as well. The goblins however didn't care about the nuances of dwarven eyesight and reformed and attacked the inn again. This time with bugbears crashing through the windows, a half dozen of the remaining giants bashing the walls, and about a hundred goblins storming the front and back doors.

"Oh god. Is Tig and the boys going to be okay?" asked Mina with concern.

Gerald couldn't answer. At first more and more goblins and bugbears stormed the inn. Followed by a few screams, then smoke pouring out the windows. Gerald felt a heavy lump in his throat, as he feared the worse.

"Err now? " asked Sir Trevor.

Before Prince Aaron could answer, the Inn was engulfed in a giant ball of light. Gerald turned away, before a thunderous wall of sound and dust crashed into him. He would have fallen off the draft horse had not Mina grabbed him in time.

"What the hell was that?" coughed the newly named Lady Tammy.

Gerald squinted his eyes and saw about a quarter of the town laid in ruins. The Inn had somehow exploded and took out several buildings and Abyss knows how many goblins, bugbears, and giants with it. Only flattened rubble remained as the front ranks of goblins scattered.

"Looks like Tig, outdid herself," coughed Gerald.

Gerald thought that the battle would be over, the enemy's morale was broken, and they would run fleeing home. But a particularly ugly goblin with a staff, and glowing green eyes that could be seen even from where he was at, stepped on a large piece of ruined village and raised his staff. Green energy flowed out of him, which grasped and intertwined with the fleeing goblins. Gerald wasn't sure what it was, but the goblins stopped their route and once again attacked in fury.

"NOW! CHARGE! GO! " shouted the Prince. She spurred Corsair forward, followed by the three Knights and the Teamster. The five sped towards the Goblin horde.

Mina hesitated, unsure what to do. She turned to Gerald for instruction.

The bard briefly considered they should turn around, ride far away from here, and live happily ever after. That would be the smart thing to do.

"You heard the Prince," he said reluctantly. "It's GO time!"


	19. Chapter 19

Though Princess Aaron began the charge, Sir Smallhill quickly took the lead. The Knight's lance, pierced a goblin archer, as his horse trampled two more. Aaron and Sir Trevor took up his flanks and scatter the archers before them, while Lady Scarecrow and Ed the teamster mopped up any survivors left in their wake. The five riders swept the archers before them.

Mina and Gerald meanwhile, struggled to keep up. Not only was their mount slower, Ed took the younger and faster of the two draft horses, but it also had to carry two riders. Despite this, the pair managed to pull their weight during the charge. Though Mina refused to attack, she didn't seem to mind when their horse stomped a stunned goblin that wandered before them. Gerald on the other hand managed to clip a couple of goblin archers on the top of the head with his horseman's mace. His third swing missed, but he was able to catch him on the shoulder with his backhand. While he preferred the more showy and flashy rapier, the mace proved an apt weapon. It was easy to grip, hits hard, and most importantly simple to swing.

After their impromptu wedge slammed through the archers and routed them, Aaron directed them towards old Greeneyes himself. While the rest of the goblin's guard scattered before the vengeful Prince, the goblin shaman stood his ground and slammed his staff onto the ground.

The ruined streets shifted and great spikes of cobblestone and bedrock tore upwards from the ground. Sir Smallhill's horse reared up, almost knocking the knight to the ground. Somehow Smallhill maintained control of his steed, but it was for naught as two more spikes erupted to the side of him. The great stone spikes impaled the knight and his horse, and lifted both their lifeless bodies high off the ground.

Greeneyes then turned his magic against the rest of the knights, scattering them as they attempted to evade the spikes.

Sir Trevor was the next to be grabbed, his horse was crushed by the stone, but he managed a swift dismount and blunted most of the initial attack against him with his shield. Another stone spike attempted to stab him through the brain, but Prince Aaron rode by and shattered it with Dragonsword, before parrying and riposting a trio of spikes aimed at her and Corsair.

Gerald had seen Greeneye's mastery over this type of magic before. He recalled that it almost crushed the life out of Tig last night and recalled what he had to do. As Prince Aaron and Sir Trevor regrouped, Gerald tossed a simple blue smoke spell in front of Greeneyes. The goblin shaman scoffed at this old trick and narrowed its greedy verdant eyes at Gerald.

That was all the distraction and hesitation that Prince Aaron needed.

Corsair jumped over the spikes attempting to encircle him, landing a mere few feet past Greeneyes. The mighty warhorse attempted to kick straight through the goblin but was stopped mere inches away by a translucent green shield. Before the goblin could react, the Prince slid from her saddle, so she was practically horizontal from the ground. She then took a lunging swipe at the goblin and both the top of Greeneye's staff and his head were separated with the Prince's mighty cleave. While Gerald was still unsure about the dragon slaying properties of Dragonsword, the sharpness of its edge was no longer in doubt.

"Good show laddy," said Ed as he smashed his mace down onto a goblin's head.

Gerald wanted to say something witty in return, but Mina was guiding their horse in an erratic fashion to avoid the goblins that were all around them.

"To the bailey!" shouted Aaron. With their shaman dead the goblins were in mass disarray. Mina and Ed complied and set off after the Prince. Lady Scarecrow attempted to follow but was almost pulled off her horse by a bugbear. Luckily Sir Trevor was nearby and managed a good shield bash into the furry goblin's face, stunning the creature enough for it to release its grip. He then pulled himself up on Scarecrow's horse and they both galloped after the Prince.

As the group rode desperately towards the fort, a great shadow covered them. Gerald thought that was pretty impressive, since it was already pretty dark, but then he realized it must have been some sort of magic trick. He glanced up and briefly saw the outline of a great dragon before he was engulfed in the darkness. While he couldn't see, he could hear Trevor cursing and Ed yelping as their horses whinnied in confusion.

Gerald wasn't sure if the goblins could see in the darkness, but he could hear their voices and they were closing about them.

"I'm afraid Gerard," whispered Mina. Gerald couldn't see, but she could feel her as she clutched him closely.

"I'll protect you." He couldn't see and he could barely fight, but he meant it for all he was worth.

"I don't need protecting," said Mina in a soft distant voice. "It's just that. All this blood, all this carnage. I don't know if I could control myself. "

"Eh? Just let your fury overwhelm you," said Gerald. If there was anytime they needed some dwarven ass kicking powers, it was now.

"No, you don't understand. I'm not like my brothers and sisters, I can't control it. The fire inside of me cannot be controlled if I release it."

Fire? Was she referring to her sorceress powers? Was she a pyromancer or something? Or was it some dwarf forge analogy. Besides fighting those little guys like to work in their smithies, and the last time he recalled those places were hot.

"I'm here for you. If your rage becomes a problem, we'll deal with it together," said Gerald. He wasn't sure if that was inspiring enough, but he felt a tight little hug from the dwarven sorceress, and he guessed it was good enough.

"We have to go on foot," said Mina as she guided Gerald off the horse. Though he couldn't see, he was used to stumbling and they soon found themselves breaking free of the magical darkness. Instead of exiting next to the moat however, the pair found themselves staring face to face with about a dozen bugbears wielding great morning stars with no sign of Prince Aaron and the other Knights.

Gerald pushed Mina behind him, but once again the dwarf girl refused to budge. "I'll handle this," he lied as he stepped in front of her instead. Though he was pretty sure he would get pasted by the first giant hairy goblin, he didn't want 'save me Mina' to be his last words. If this was where he was going to die, let it be with some famous last words he could be proud of.

Gerald stepped towards the first bugbear with his light mace in hand. He wanted the brute to make the first move, so he could dodge or something, but before either one of them could react, a great war hammer arced out of the darkness and crushed the surprised bugbear.

The other large furry goblins trembled in fear, and rightly so, as two hundred and fifty pounds of muscled bound hammer wielding half orc descended into their ranks. It was like watching a bear against a pack of wolves. Every swing that Ceto took was swift, decisive, brutal, and lethal. One bugbear managed a parry against the great hammer, but both its morning star and head was crushed under the half orc's might. A few of the hairy goblins managed to attack en masse in an attempt to overwhelm Ceto, but their formation was quickly broken up when a red pinecone was tossed from the half orc's back and into their ranks. One moment they were ready to rush Ceto, the next moment their body parts were blown across the battlefield in a shower of gory viscera and shrapnel.

"Mina! Gerald!" cried Tig as her partner was busy stomping another half orc." I didn't think to see the pair of you here."

"Honestly, we didn't think we would be here either. After entering the fort, Lady Tessa fooled me again. And then I kind of got thrown into a cart, and some wargs chased me, and then the crazy Prince decided to attack the goblins herself. Well it's a long story."

"Herself?" asked Tig.

"Like I said, it's a long story."

"Not now," grunted Ceto as he pointed skywards. The dragon made several passes overhead, but seemed to ignore them as it circled the motte and bailey.

Tig nodded and motioned towards the fort. "Dragon or no dragon, that's our only option."

As they picked their way through the rubble, Gerald saw what looked like the remains of Sir Trevor being torn apart by three wargs. The knight's shield was rended and his blade broken on the ground. The red eyed wolves each had a limb and pulled apart the knight in a grisly fashion. Trevor was already dead, but the wargs seemed to relish in the desecration of his body. While they were a good distance away from them, Gerald knew that it could easily have been him in Trevor's place. He quickened his pace away from the terrible scene.

High above them the dragon had finally descended from the clouds again, landing on the ruins of the storehouse. It screeched its awful high pitched voice at his remaining troops. Though they had taken crippling losses, they still had the numbers to take Daggerhall. Terrorized by the dragon, the scattered goblins once again reformed ranks and marched towards the fort. This time they rumbled forward in unison. No reserves, no flankers, no missile cover. It was an all or nothing attack .

"We really should get to the bailey quick," suggested Gerald as the dragon above them screeched at its troops. The other three agreed and they began to crawl over the ruined buildings towards the fort in double time.

"Where's Armondo?" asked Gerald as they hopped around a particularly large piece of broken wall.

"We lost him in the cellars," said Ceto. "Before it fell."

"I'm…I'm sorry," said Mina.

"The dragon is crafty, it didn't show itself till the battle was joined. We had a trap set, but we decided to set it off prematurely to buy the defenders some time. Armondo stayed at his sniper's perch a bit too long, but he's always been like that."

Ceto shrugged. "My brother is tough."

As they neared the moat, Gerald could feel the ground shake as the goblin army thundered behind them. They barely made it to the southern portion of the bailey and saw Sir Ridley and Lady Tessa guarding the breach. Around them were Inga, Rolf, and a few other villagers hard at work at dislodging the log bridges set up earlier by the bugbears.

"What in the Abyss are you doing here?" cried Tessa. "Where's…umm ….your fellow prisoner."

Gerald didn't bother to answer as the small group hopped on the big log and ran across the moat. He half expected someone to challenge Ceto or even Tessa to set her guards on them, but right now they had other things to worry about. Roughly two thousand things, armed and charging full tilt at the breach.


	20. Chapter 20

"Chop you peasants, cut down those logs!" ordered Tessa with her imperious voice. The goblins were marching lock step now, and would be upon them any moment. All that stood between the horde and crushing all of Daggerhall were the two log bridges, and the inability of the defenders to remove them.

"What do you think we're doing?" grumbled Inga as she hefted an axe blow towards the two logs bridging the moat. Though she was an old woman, she managed a good swing and took a chunk out of the tree. Unfortunately everywhere she hit a green glow enveloped the damaged wood and vines and tendrils grew out of it.

Gerald wasn't sure if it was some lingering magic from Greeneyes or perhaps another goblin shaman was responsible, but the logs stubbornly refused to be damaged.

"LIFT!" shouted Ceto. While the villagers were still intimidated by the half orc, Gerald was intimidated too and he considered him a friend, they gathered around him as they attempted to toss or roll one of the logs into the water. They lifted as one and the great log was raised a foot off the ground. Just as they made progress, roots shot out of the log and dug into the ground, pulling it back into place.

Undeterred Ceto continued to match his strength against the log. It seemed hopeless, until Tig hopped out of his wicker basket and began pouring acid onto the newly formed roots. After some steam and some hissing, the log finally began to shift in the villager's favour. Even Mina helped, as she gripped the log on one end, and her mighty dwarven thews strained against it. While the log moved slightly under the power of Ceto and the villagers, with Mina's help it was making clear progress.

"It's working! " said Rolf as he strained to help. The villagers cheered as one log was rolled and chucked into the water, but the goblins were upon them. They were too late in their efforts to stop the horde as the goblins began to march in double time, picking up their pace before charging towards the remaining log.

Lady Tessa and Sir Ridley were ready with blade in hand, surrounded by a dozen guardsmen and knights. They would make their stand at the edge of the bridge, hoping to box up the attackers for as long as possible, as slingers, archers, crossbowmen began firing at the green tide. Despite dropping dozens the goblins pressed forward, their goal in sight. Even though Gerald was not a military man, he knew that once the goblins got a foothold on their side of the bridge, it would be over for the lot of them.

Without warning, Gerald drew his mace, and charged across the bridge, ducking past Tess and Ridley. "Follow me! Follow me to victory!"

All the villagers looked at him, but none followed. Gerald seemed oblivious to his lack of support and ran across the bridge to face the goblins all by himself. As he reached halfway across the bridge, Gerald's charge suddenly halted as he slammed into something blocking his path. The bard staggered back briefly before charging again, and once again he struck some sort of invisible barrier. He even placed his hands against it to feel the dimensions of the wall, but could not find a path through.

The goblins saw this and attempted to brake in time to avoid charging face first into the barrier. Unfortunately, the momentum of the charge crashed through the front ranks sending a dozen into the moat or the sharpened spikes lining it. Those that did not drop into the moat, fell on themselves, forming a green tangle of limbs, weapons, fur, and teeth as the ones behind them slammed into their now stationary front ranks.

Gerald snickered, he couldn't believe his master pantomiming skills had worked. Before he could celebrate though, he saw Mina lifting the log above her head and marching to the edge of the moat by herself. All the villagers and even Ceto watched her in awe. Gerald however scrambled back, jumping off the log , barely missing the sharpened stakes.

A great cheer came up from the fort, as the goblins fell back once again. While the villager's missiles were barely denting their numbers, none of the goblins wanted to mill about under fire with no way across.

"Back, you fiends!" shouted Sir Ridley. He was wearing a set of shiny plate like Gerald, except his was not covered in grime, gore, and dust and dirt. Besides Lady Tessa, he was the most visible person on the battlefield. "You will never take this Daggerhall, while I, it's Prince, protects it."

The goblins paid him no attention as they retreated out of missile range.

The dragon however was unamused as it swooped and hovered above the breach. Instead of engaging in hand to hand, a half dozen blue bolts shot out of its claws and struck Sir Ridley in the chest. The knight barely managed to withstand the attack before another volley of blue bolts struck him again. As Ridley began to fall, the dragon finally decided to engage and swooped down upon the defenders. Tessa managed to turn and flee, diving past the remnants of their barricades, but the injured Sir Ridley was too slow. The dragon's claw snatched him from behind, shaking him like a dog before soaring skywards.

"This fool isn't the Prince," screeched the dragon in its high annoying voice." I have the Prince in my tower. This is a fake to give you false hope. After I raze your miserable collection of hovels, I will emasculate the real Prince with my magic and make her into my bride. I will take what is owed to me!"

The villagers weren't sure what the dragon was threatening, or why their Prince was supposedly a fraud, but cringed at the tone of the threat. Then they screamed as the dragon released Sir Ridley and they watched in horror as he plummeted into the ground , landing at a fatal angle with a messy splat.

This time it was the villagers that fled, and Gerald couldn't blame them. Goblins, bugbears, and giants were one thing, but a dragon was another. Everyone either abandoned their posts and fled up to the motte, or took cover under what little fortifications were left. Gerald spotted Lady Tessa picking herself up from the dirt, just to be knocked down again by Inga's bulk as the squat old lady fled into the inner fort.

"Stand firm! Stand firm!" shouted the clear and ringing voice of the true Prince. The villagers paused and saw what looked like the Prince astride mighty Corsair charging through a bonfire and into the goblins from across the moat, behind him was an old man on a draft horse and a woman with a crossbow on a more traditional steed, barely keeping up. The two took the long route around the flames. A giant attempted to block their path, but the Prince easily evaded its clumsy blows and slashed a chunk out of its heel, slicing hide and bone easily with her fiercely glowing blade. The giant twisted to swing at the Prince again, but its foot couldn't support him any more as it tumbled and crashed heavily onto a mob of goblins.

After the Prince dispatched the giant with a quick thrust into its now very accessible ear, she sped towards the moat again and Corsair sailed across in one mighty leap, landing solidly on the other side.

Ed and Scarecrow attempted the same, but instead crashed unceremoniously into the water. "I'm alright, I'm alright," said the thrashing Teamster before Ceto extended him a jagged piece of wood and pulled him out. He then extended the branch to Scarecrow who seemed reluctant to take help from an orc, but eventually did so when Ceto kept jabbing the wood into her face. Their horses had a better time of it, swimming across and hopping on its ledge as if nothing happened.

"Zerd! I am here you traitor! You had me in your clutches but I escaped!" shouted Prince Aaron.

"Impossible!" screeched the Dragon."You were locked up, you were…" the dragon paused as it stared at Aaron. "Wait…did someone transform you without my presence? What is the meaning of this?'

The villagers that weren't hiding were murmuring among themselves.

"Is that the Prince? Is he a girl?"

"It kind of looks like the Prince...except you know, with boobs..."

"Did that dragon really transform him?"

"This is horrible, he was so handsome…"

"well...she's still kind of pretty..."

The dragon roared in anger as a ball of fire engulfed the Prince. Aaron, stood firm as the fires washed over her.

"Come down and fight you fraud of a wizard! Come down and reveal your true form!" challenged Aaron who appeared uninjured by the flames. Gerald was amazed, but then recalled the ring she was showing off earlier when Mina melted their shackles.

The dragon was having none of that, and let loose a bolt of lightning at the Prince. Aaron dived for cover, barely evading the bolt as the transformed wizard circled around for another magical attack.

"This wasn't supposed to happen this way, " sobbed Lady Tessa. Gerald couldn't see her, but she sounded like she was nearby, probably under some cover.

"Need to get dragon on the ground," grunted Ceto behind a smashed section of building.

"If it gets close enough, I might be able to throw a bomb in its mouth. That might take him out," suggested Tig, but from her tone Gerald thought she wasn't that confident in her aim or the likelihood of success. "We've never fought a dragon so big before. We can't do this with Armondo."

"I have Dragonsword, but I can't throw it at him," complained the Prince as she pressed herself up against the wall. Though the blade was glowing madly, Gerald wondered if the sword had extra slaying powers or whatever when dealing with a fake dragon. It definitely was detecting the wizard as a dragon, but would that extend once it tasted its blood? Did the sword even have a tongue?

Mina remained silent as she stared at the carnage around them. She and Gerald were the most exposed, hiding behind a big giant rock, but their choices for cover were slim. As they hid Gerald looked at Mina and saw the calm expression on her face save for her wide saucer eyes that were dilating from this scene. She was so terrified that she didn't even know how to properly show it. "Don't be afraid. We'll get out of this," assured Gerald.

"I'm not afraid. At least not for myself. It's just, it's so much to take in. I'm worried about you though. If I try to fly you out, the wizard might hit us with an area effect spell, and I won't be able to protect you from that." Her small fiery orb, hissed and crackled as it bobbed up and down in agreement.

Gerald shook his head. Poor girl. She was talking nonsense now. There was only one way to beat the dragon and that was to get him on the ground. The only way to do that was to taunt the beast. As a bard, he was better trained to do that than anyone.

Bolstered by the way he mimed a wall and stopped the goblins, Gerald stepped out from behind the rock and waved at the incoming dragon and shouted as loud as he could.

"There was once a wizard

Who could change into a lizard

He could become a dragon

As big as a wagon.

All feared this mage

But not due to his rage.

All fled from Zerd,

Because he smelled like a turd!"

The dragon initially looked puzzled and then roared in anger.

"You dare mock me! My vexation shall know no bounds!" it screeched.

Gerald was ready to jump in the water, as it dove in to rip him apart with claw and teeth, but instead the wizard launched a fireball directly at him.

Gerald gave off a high pitched scream when he was engulfed in flames. But his screams became laughter when he realized it didn't hurt.

He then extended his middle finger with the ornate fire resistant ring on it, and waved to the dragon. "You're going to have to do better than that!"

The wizard screeched again, before raining lightning down from the sky.

Gerald looked up and briefly wondered if his ring protected him from lightning as well, before his position was hammered into oblivion.


	21. Chapter 21

Blackness surrounded Gerald as he drifted through the void. Gone were his material worries. Finding food to eat, evading angry barmaids because of your unpaid tab, being chased by red eyed wargs, attacked by all manner of goblins, knocked out and trussed up by pretty knights, and even struck down by a dragon wizard's wrath. All these things no longer troubled him as his spirit rose to a higher plane of existence. But before he could achieve full ascendency he found himself tethered to the world he thought he no longer needed.

Gromberry crepes, Daggerhall mead, the kiss of a girl, and last but not least the longing stare of a pair of saucer eyes, these things and more dragged him back to his mortal shell.

"Wake up you fool, Abyss take you," cursed Aaron as she slammed her glowing white fist into his chest.

"ACK! PFTUI! COUGH! " wheezed Gerald as a jolt of her holy power coursed through him, causing his heart to flutter uncontrollably, and his arms and legs to tremble wildly. His body spasmed for a few seconds before he fell into a more stable but disorientated state. As he recovered he forced himself to look around and saw that he was lying in the dirt outside the breach, but strangely no one was there save Prince Aaron and the corpses of the recently slain."What? What happened?"

"I should ask you the same. Your heart stopped beating, but it was a minor fix. Unlike these other poor sods here, " said Aaron relieved that her holy energy was not spent in vain. "How did you erect that barrier on the log? Why did you challenge that wizard? Where did that other dragon come from?"

Gerald's breath was short, but he managed a chuckle. "There was no barrier…that was just a supreme exhibition of pantomiming. I challenged the wizard, because I thought I could provoke him to land, so that you and Ceto could smack him about. As for the other dragon…wait…what other dragon?"

Aaron pointed upwards into the night sky. It was nightfall, but the sky was illuminated by flashes of blue lightning and great gouts of red flame. High above, Gerald could see two dragons soaring past and blasting elemental energy at each other. The larger of the two, which Gerald thought was Zerd, seemed to be on the defensive as it attempted to keep its distance from the smaller one and threw spells to keep it at bay, the smaller one, a roughly twenty five footer which was a brighter shade of red, was more aggressive and attempted to close in for melee as it breathed flames at its foe.

"I was right! Zerd's a fake dragon, but somehow he attracted the attentions of a real one!" exclaimed Gerald. "Now they're doing some type of territorial battle."

"Perhaps," sighed Prince Aaron. "I guess it's a small comfort to know the cause of one's destruction."

"Eh?"

Aaron waved at the fort's empty courtyard. It was deserted save a few maddened stragglers. He could see Rolf clawing blindly in a corner, attempting to scramble over a ruined wall and he also spotted Lady Tessa sobbing uncontrollably behind some barrels, rolled up in a ball. Beyond those two there was no one in sight. "Look around. After you taunted Zerd, he unleashed a storm of lightning on you. It was all I could do to knock you out of the main blast, but even then the shock stopped your heart. As I was about to drag your lifeless body behind cover, well, its hard to explain, but let's just say all hells broke loose. Everyone that held their ground was overtaken by a terrifying presence. Our people ran mostly into the bowels of the motte, but some were so terrified they jumped into the moat on the opposite side and attempted to swim away. The goblins fared no better, as they simply scattered and fled the field, most likely back to the Dool lands. The next thing I know I looked up and saw Zerd fighting that smaller dragon. I don't know which one will win, but I can tell you who the loser will be."

Gerald scratched his head. "Ooh..you mean us."

"Aye."

"Wait, how long was I out?" asked Gerald.

"About a minute, but it doesn't matter. We're at their mercy now," sighed Aaron." With our full complement of defenders we might have stood a chance, but as you can see everyone was overcome by dragon fear."

"Dragon fear? I've heard of that. So why hasn't it affected you?"

"Because I'm a Paladin of Nirrodin. Because of my pure spirit, we are immune to fear."

"Pure spirit? You tell a lot of lies for someone with a pure spirit."

Aaron's eyes narrowed at Gerald, but she relented and smiled softly at the bard. "Aye, it's true. It seems my entire life has been a lie up to now, but it seems I will be judged soon. Sometimes I question my own moral standing, but in the end, the greater good is all that counts. My deity believes in me, or at least enough to allow me to channel healing energy and to summon Corsair."

Gerald considered her rationalization and shrugged. It was something to debate for another time.

"So why hasn't it affected me? Was It because I was briefly dead?"

"Possibly. Only the most powerful heroes or beasts can resist it. Even veteran soldiers are no match for Dragon fear. I think the remaining giants fled, not because they were afraid, but because they saw everyone else was fleeing, "said Aaron.

Gerald wasn't sure what to do at this point. If there was a time to throw your hands up and run gibbering into the dark, it would be now, but he couldn't leave without Tig, Ceto, and especially Mina, not after promising to keep her safe. "Have you seen which way my friends ran?"

"We didn't run. We're right here!" squeaked a small voice from under some rubble.

"Tig? Are you all right, is Ceto all right? Is Mina with you?" shouted Gerald as he examined what looked like the ruins of one of the storage buildings.

"No," grunted a gruff voice.

"Nein. Mina is not present. We lost sight of her during the barrage of lightning. But both Ceto and I are ok," squeaked Tig. "When the second dragon appeared we took cover, but as you can see we choose poorly. Zerd's lightning must have weakened this building and it fell on us. We should be able to dig ourselves out, unless one of the dragons does that first."

"I will help them," said Aaron. "If I can free them before one of the dragons is victorious over the other, then perhaps the four of us can challenge it."

Gerald aided the Prince but was of little help. While the Prince could easily toss about one hundred pound rocks, and roll to the side rubble weighing even more than that, Gerald was admittedly out of shape, and had trouble moving anything.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to get some tools," said Gerald at last as he eyed the ruins of Eddwardo's Sundries. Surely there must be some picks, shovels, or maybe even saws there to get Ceto and Tig out. Before Aaron could protest, Gerald hopped onto one of the fallen logs, that had been tossed into the moat. Though they didn't reach all the way across, they did reach half way, which was enough for Gerald to tread across after much balancing issues.

Daggerhall was a ghost town now. Everything was burned, smashed, or looted, and often all of the above. Dead goblins and the occasional slain giant were strewn about, with the occasional turkey vulture banner on the ground. Gerald didn't feel much loss for the town though, he was more concerned about the people cowering in the motte or fleeing into the wilderness than this collection of rubble, and if he was going to save them he needed Tig and Armondo freed. He wasn't sure which way Mina ran off to, but he would find her. She had made it this far, and he refused to accept the possibility that she was dead.

The pyrotechnic battle overhead grew closer as Gerald neared the ruined shop, to the point that his skin could feel the fury of the heat, and his hairs were raised by the electricity. He glanced upwards and saw that the smaller dragon seemed to have some of its extremities charred, while the big one appeared to have large bloody wounds on it. The battle would be over soon, though the winner was still in doubt.

When he finally arrived to his destination, he was disappointed to find nothing he was looking for. There was a small gardening spade, and a undamaged plow, but that was it for digging instruments. He supposed that the Prince could summon Corsair, assuming it was unsummoned and not dead, and they could hook it to the plow, but that didn't seem to be a productive course of action.

"Great gawds, how I'm supposed to free Tig and Ceto now," he grumbled.

"Gmrmld? Mm thmt ymu?" he heard nearby.

"Armondo?"

"Gmrmld, mm stmck, gmt me mmt!"

Gerald shook his head, what was it with half orcs and getting inadvertently buried?

"Hang on there buddy, I'll dig you free, err somehow."

With no tools, Gerald wasn't sure how he was going to free Armondo. If the half orc was indeed underground, how long would he last? He guessed he could return back to Aaron, help him free Ceto and Tig, and all of them could go free Armondo, but by then the dragons might have finished each other off and would be going after them. There were no good choices.

As Gerald contemplated this, the titans above had neared the crescendo of their battle. The larger dragon was blasted by a storm of ice, but it simply used the blizzard as cover as it dove through it. The larger dragon did not expect such a dangerous maneuver since ice was supposed to be the bane of fire dragons, but it hesitated to retreat and the smaller one crashed directly into him. Though the larger Zerd dragon should have been able to overpower the smaller one due to its size, that wasn't the case, and Gerald was reminded of what Mina said about the unnatural lack of weight of Zerd's transformed state. The small dragon raked the larger one's wings and belly with all its claws like some great cat, while its fangs snapped shut near the head of its opponent's long serpentine neck.

The larger dragon lost its ability to fly under the assault and the two tumbled out of the sky, with the small one refusing to release its grip.

Gerald ran, and then jumped as the pair crashed into the now flattened remains of Edd's Sundries. The bard picked himself up and glanced back at the two dragons, as they now rolled about the ground, trampling more buildings as they tumbled towards the town square. He should have picked himself up and continued to run, but he was drawn to the battle.

Perhaps because this was the scenario he was waiting for, to witness two dragons joined in battle tooth and claw. This was his tale, his inspiration for the epic ballad he was going o write. Or maybe, he felt a need to bear witness to this. The fall of a titan or the rise of another.

As the larger dragon's struggles grew weaker and finally stopped, the smaller dragon gave its body a vigorous shake before releasing it. The large dragon slowly reverted back to the form of a frail and bloodied old man. The shorter dragon hacked a feeble victory roar before it too fell on its haunches, its fury drained. Gerald saw that it was victorious but it wasn't unscathed. It was missing multiple scales and black charred marks covered its body. He also noticed a small ball of fire orbiting around it, and the beast's sad saucer shaped eyes, and a moment of embarrassed clarity struck him.

"Arrow!" gasped Armondo. Gerald turned and saw a dust covered and bloody half orc standing on a rock with bow drawn. He must have been released when the dragons fell onto his building. "Black arrow! I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and always I have recovered you. I stole you from my father and he from a dwarf. If ever you came from the forges of the Vorin the true King under the Mountain, go now and speed well!"

"No! Don't! " shouted Gerald, but the stout half orc's shot was true as he released his black metal arrow straight into the dragon before him.


	22. Chapter 22

"and then he shot it through the heart," said the Minstrel as he first pantomimed an archer drawing a bow and taking aim. He normally would have stretched out his tale, but his shoulder was acting up and he was hungry; best to wrap it up, collect his coins, and get a bit of supper before it got too late.

The crowd gathered in the town square was in shock. Mostly the children, but some of the old folks seemed disappointed with the end as well. A couple of the large labourer looking types simply snorted and walked away. The minstrel sighed, as he noted they left without paying.

"..but it couldn't have ended like that. Mina was clearly the dragon, Gerald should have saved her," exclaimed a particularly agitated young girl.

"Sometimes there's no happy endings," sighed the Minstrel as he held out his wide brimmed feather cap. A couple of the elders nodded in agreement and tossed some coins in.

"You can't end it here, " complained a short freckled kid. "What about the rest of them."

The Minstrel grumbled but relented. His supper would have to wait for the sake of his art. "Well , let's see. Armondo the half orc, I'm sure you've all heard of him even in this hamlet, he went on to claim great renown. Killing small ten footer dragons was one thing, but a red over twenty was quite another. Believe it or not, he went on to court Prince Aaron for a few years, before his multiple wives caught up to him. After that he fled the kingdom and went into hiding. I've been told he makes a living performing archery tricks. "

Some eyebrows were raised in the crowd, and the Minstrel made note of that. He would ask questions later.

"Besides being courted by Armondo, Prince Aaron, who despite her recently revealed identity still preferred to be known as a Prince, was proclaimed King of Westholding. The old King Gustav had gotten so daft, that he couldn't even remember his original deception and was sent away to the Great Sanitarium in Grom to seek aid in his madness."

"Speaking of the Great Sanitarium. Lady Tessa was sent there as well. Prince Aaron forgave her betrayal, but the death of her father, the bout of Dragon fear and the realization of her own failure to lead the town was too much of a strain for the young woman's mind. Sadly, she never made it there. It's said that she escaped before she could receive help, and is now running wild with adventurers."

"Let me see, what else. While Alak Dool was implicated in the failed invasion he was never brought to justice. Prince Aaron and several of the surrounding kingdoms massed an army to the Dool Lands. They succeeded in sacking a few keeps and fortresses and even took a fair chunk of territory, but the amount of humanoids were just too thick there. While they won most of their battles, none of the victories were decisive. After a few years they simply kept garrisons in their newly won holdings to keep the goblins and their ilk in check."

"My pa was in the great Crusade," interrupted one of the children. "He brought me back a gob..gobyn..goblin war drum."

The Minstrel nodded at the brat and continued.

"Lady Scarecrow was not able to revert back to Sir Thomas. Prince Aaron hired several wizards but none were able to break the curse. Also, it seems that her marriage was already on the rocks and this gender change was the last straw. Her wife divorced her, but I heard she lives happily now with Ed the Teamster."

"The town of Daggerhall was destroyed, but thankfully most of its people survived. They rebuilt the town with aid from the Kingdom, with a stone keep and walls this time. Also, a detachment of knights was assigned to the town to deter future incursions. A town can change a lot in ten years."

"As for Captain Tighyihha and Ceto. Well, I guess there's a happy ending for someone in this tale. While Armondo received most of the acclaim, the pair still got a cut of the reward. They decided to take some time off, and were eventually married. Yes, I know. A gnome and a half orc is an odd couple, but you don't choose love, love chooses you. The last I heard, the pair moved to North Darokin and bought a nice big hacienda there. They adopted a couple of kids, since gnomes and half orcs do not breed true, and are doing quite well for themselves. Ceto found great success as a masked pit fighter, Diablo Verde, while Tig focused her alchemy skills for less destructive purposes. Seems she opened up a distillery, and started brewing up some of the local liquor, a beverage known as Agave worm juice. Apparently she's quite good at it, and even won some awards for her Tiguila."

"I love Tiguila," commented a dwarf, much to the agreement of the crowd.

"Hmm…is there anyone else?" asked the Minstrel, playing up mostly to the small children. The adults had already left and tossed their coins, but he still had a crowd, regardless of how young.

"Gerald the bard!"

"Ahh, that scamp was devastated by the death of the dragon, the real dragon I mean. He had no proof it was Mina, but it haunted him ever since. He took up to drinking and gambling, and spent his portion of the reward money in just a few months. With his money and love gone, the bard finally left town never to be seen again. Some say he was the one the rescued Tess from the sanitarium, some say he joined Prince Aaron's crusade into the Dool Lands as a foot soldier, other's say he simply drunk himself into a ditch. A sad ending I know. As a fellow bard, I for one would like to think he got his life back together and pursued his career in the Empire of Grom. You might think of him as a failure, but how many people stood up to a goblin, a warg, a bugbear, a giant, a wizard, and even a dragon? And lived to tell about it,"

The children weren't sure what to make of the ending of the Minstrel's tale, but they eventually dispersed and chattered amongst themselves about it. The Minstrel was pleased, not only by the reaction of the crowd, but by his haul today. Mostly coppers, but a few silver were mixed into his hat. That should set up him up for a few days, he thought as he poured them into his coin purse.

As he gathered his loot and made his way to the inn through one of the darker streets. One of the larger labourers that had left before tipping stood in his path, with two lean dangerous men behind him.

"That was a good story Minstrel," said the red faced young man, as his cohorts surrounded the Minstrel and cut off his route of escape. "I think, my friends and I would like to think about it over a few drinks, on you of course."

The Minstrel's hand went for his mace, as the three came at him. He managed to clip one in the gut with his weapon, sending him reeling to the ground, but another grabbed him from behind as the big youth snatched his purse away.

As the battle was joined, a small fiery orb darted around them, causing them to pause in confusion.

"Release my treasure," said a soft but firm voice from out of nowhere.

Knowing that the odds had now changed, the big youth and the lean man who was hit in the stomach ran while the other one slipped a knife near the Minstrel's neck. "Stay back!" he threatened.

The Minstrel sighed, and simply transformed his travelling clothes into that of a bright suit of shiny plate armour. This caught his attacker by surprise, and his grip was released. Before the knife wielder could react however, a small cloaked woman stepped out of the shadows and tossed him aside with a single blow. The man crumpled to the ground with a groan.

"I could have handled that," grumbled Gerald. "And now all my busking money has fled."

"I said, release my treasure," snorted Mina as she hugged the bard as the fiery orb vanished back into her satchel. "Coins come and go, but I only have one Gerard."

Gerald would have preferred the coins right now, as he watched the larger youth speed down the street. There was no way he could catch him. Mina could, but not without making a commotion, wrecking the town, and sending half the population gibbering in fear. Just as the red faced young man was about to round a corner, an arrow pierced his hand causing him to drop the purse. The man looked in shock at his mutilated hand, he made a pathetic mewling noise before running out of sight.

"You should be more careful with all the thieves running around in this backwater town," said a big squat half orc as he walked out of the shadows. He turned to Mina and bowed deeply. "Once again, I'm eternally sorry for shooting you that day."

"There was no harm done," said Mina as she hugged Armondo.

Gerald shook his head as he trotted to scoop up his coins. "Why are you apologizing to her for. You hit me remember," he said as he rubbed his still wounded shoulder. While Armondo's aim was true, Gerald found speed he never knew he had. The bard had jumped in the path of the arrow, taking the shot in the shoulder meant for Mina's heart. Even with the best of magic, the Black arrow's wound had still not healed properly.

"So, what's a fine upstanding couple like you two doing in this no good thieves den," smiled Armondo. The half orc motioned to slap his shoulder, making Gerald involuntarily wince, but he quickly turn his slap into a handshake to everyone's amusement except the bard's.

"Well, as you can guess, we're looking for you," said Gerald.

"Eh?"

"Tig and your brother are finally coming out of retirement. They're thinking of expanding their distillery and need some serious gold," explained Mina.

"I could think of better ways to make gold that those that involve a ruffian like me," winked Armondo and then motioned her to continue.

"During the crusade into the Dool lands, a map was discovered indicating where Alak Dool had hidden an interesting artifact. Well, it was too deep into enemy territory for an army to trek, but well you know….a small team….a spot for an archer….you know any good ones?"

Armondo shook his head. "Count me out. It's taken me ten years to settle accounts with my ….bookies, loan sharks, and EX-WIVES. It cost me a lot you know, and not just in coins. I've learned my lesson about living 'the adventurer's life, and I just want a peaceful fresh start. I'm happy shooting crows and making an occasional coin on archery tricks at the bar. I've learned to be a more humble person over the last ten years, and learned never to start a relationship on a lie."

"Prince Aaron is coming," teased Mina.

"What really? Hmm….let me think about it."

After an uneventful trek to the inn, a few rounds of mead, and a few details about the expedition, it didn't take Armondo long to decide. He told Gerald and Mina to stay put as he grabbed his gear and made arrangements concerning his apartment.

As the pair waited at the bar, Mina slid close to Gerald. "You know, that's the first time I've heard that particular version of our first meeting," she purred. "So all this time, you initially thought I was a big nosed dwarf in disguise?"

"All this time you thought I could see through your alternate form?" retorted the Bard. The two stared at each other and then giggled.

"Well, I guess my judgement might have been a bit faulty back then," sighed Mina. "I was lonely you know, and the thought that there was someone that could see through my guise and not run away was just too much for me not to accept."

"It wouldn't have mattered if you were a dwarf or a dragon, though I would have drew the line if I found out you were that shapechanging codger Zerd. I'd take an arrow for you any day. "

Mina laughed. She arched her back and placed her hands over her chest in an exaggerated fashion as if someone had shot her. " You really know how to kill a dragon and win her love, Gerard. Your words go straight through my heart."

The end.


End file.
